Community banking in America, explained end to end
Community bank
A commercial bank that is independent, locally owned and locally operated, lending the money its own customers deposit to the people and businesses of its own neighbourhood.
A community bank is a local bank that stays local: it takes deposits in its own town and lends that same money back to the same town, with a board that knows the customers by name and no distant committee deciding who gets a loan.
This site defines the form, maps the network state by state, and follows the people who run it.
The ledger keeps what the industry says about itself, in plain language and in one place.
Local board
The lending decision is made in the same county as the loan.
Independent
Owned by its depositors or local shareholders, not by a national holding company.
Full service
Deposits, loans and everyday banking, the full set, in one branch.
State network
State associations and one national body organise the banks into one trade network.
Community banking
The practice of banking at community scale: a bank that keeps its headquarters, its board and its lending decisions inside the community it serves, as distinct from a national bank that branches out and decides at arm's length.
The pages that follow do the work in order: first the definition, then the network, then the lists and the rates, and finally the people who run the banks. Every claim is plain, sourced and open to correction, because a ledger is only as good as its last entry.
