The geographic area a bank draws around its main office, branches and deposit-taking ATMs, inside which regulators judge its record under the Community Reinvestment Act.
An assessment area is the map a bank draws for its CRA exam. Under the rules in use, the area must generally consist of one or more metropolitan areas or contiguous political subdivisions such as counties, cities or towns. It must include the places where the bank has its main office, its branches and its deposit-taking ATMs, plus the surrounding places where it has made a substantial portion of its loans. It must be made of whole census tracts, may not reflect illegal discrimination, and may not arbitrarily leave out low- or moderate-income tracts. The regulator does not grade the map itself but checks that it follows these limits.
The idea matters to a borrower because a loan counts most for the bank when it sits inside the map. A community development loan must benefit the bank’s assessment area or a broader statewide or regional area that includes it. A request for a property two counties past a bank’s last branch may be good credit and still do nothing for its CRA record.
Ask a banker early whether your property or business is in the bank’s assessment area.
How it shows up in the data here
Assessment area maps are not a field on this site; each bank keeps its own in a public CRA file. Branch locations are the closest public signal, since an assessment area must include the places where a bank has its main office and branches. See which banks have offices in a state on lenders by state, or filter search by state, then confirm the area with the bank.
Go further
- Lenders by state: Banks and credit unions with offices in each state.
- Search banks by state: Filter by state and loan type.
- How to read Community Reinvestment Act data: CRA data is the only public count of small business and small farm loans made by county. It is reported by larger banks only, in three size bands, with no borrower and no loan detail.
- How to find the right person at a bank for a loan: The main number reaches a branch. A commercial loan is handled by a commercial lender, and at many banks there are only a few. Finding that person is half the work of a first contact.
Related terms
- Community Reinvestment Act (CRA): The 1977 federal law that directs bank regulators to assess how well each bank helps meet the credit needs of its local communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
- Community development loan: Under the Community Reinvestment Act rules, a loan whose primary purpose is community development, such as affordable housing or financing for small businesses and farms.
- Small business loan (CRA and call report definition): In bank reporting, a business loan with an original amount of $1,000,000 or less that is a commercial and industrial loan or is secured by nonfarm nonresidential real estate.
- Community bank: A community bank is a smaller bank that takes deposits and lends mostly in the area around its offices, and decides on loans close to home.
- Field of membership: The set of people and organizations a credit union's charter lets it serve. A borrower has to fall inside it and join before the credit union can lend.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.