With their smaller size and localized focus, community banks foster a sense of belonging and community. Unlike larger financial institutions, the money you deposit with a community bank stays within your community, reinforcing the bond and shared prosperity.
That means your money stays local via loans to neighborhood small businesses and sponsorships of community initiatives. Banking with a community bank is the financial equivalent of shopping locally.
Community banks specialize in relationship banking.
Community bank officers know their customers and may consider family history and discretionary spending when making loans. Megabank loan officers apply impersonal qualification criteria, such as credit scoring, without regard to individual circumstances.
Community banks care about the same things you do, like helping your community.
Community banks stepped up when the small businesses you support needed access to the funds from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), an initiative designed to help them meet payroll during COVID closures.
As a collective, community banks issued 4.7 million loans as part of the PPP, totaling $429 billion and saving an estimated 49 million jobs. Community banks made 60 percent of all PPP loans, provided 72 percent of such loans to minority owners, and served over 90 percent of rural, suburban, and urban localities—far exceeding the support of much larger national institutions.
Community bankers are the leading lenders to small businesses.
According to the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey: Report on Employer Firms, community banks are the small business lender of choice. 79 percent of independent businesses that used community banks report they were satisfied with their overall experience, compared with 67 percent for large banks and just 49 percent for online lenders.
Learn how they are helping small businesses.
Community banks recognize the people behind the community.
When you bank with a community bank, you’re not just another account number or loan application; you are an individual customer that matters.
In contrast to the models-based, formulaic decisions used by other financial institutions, community banks work with you to understand your unique needs and offer solutions based on a personal, relationship-driven decision process.
This means they can provide more creative loan options and services that speak to the person, not the statistic. In short, they are invested in your financial success.