Small Business Loans

Source Description

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), enacted by Congress in 1977 (12 U.S.C. § 2901) and implemented through regulations at 12 CFR Parts 25, 228, 345, and 195, encourages depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities they serve. CRA lending data—typically released by August of the year following the reporting calendar year—include three main components: aggregate data, disclosure data, and a transmittal sheet. Aggregate data provide summarized information on the number and volume of small business and farm loans originated or purchased, organized by Census tract or lending institution. Disclosure data contain detailed information on bank lending activity both within and outside of CRA assessment areas, including small business and farm lending by institution, community development loans, consortium or third-party lending, and assessment area delineations. These data are especially useful for analyzing lending trends at the county level and identifying institutional assessment areas at the Census tract level. The transmittal sheet lists all reporting institutions for a given year and enables linkage of CRA data to other datasets, such as HMDA, Call Reports, and the FDIC Summary of Deposits.

For more information on CRA data collection and reporting, please refer to the CRA Data Collection and Reporting guidelines.