1996 CRA Data Now Available

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recently released the new CRA data, which includes 1996 information about small business and farm loans, community development loans and institution assessment areas. The FFIEC reported several key findings from the data in its Sept. 30, 1997, press release:

• For 1996, a total of 2,078 banks and thrifts reported data on 2.4 million small business loans totaling $147 billion and 216,629 small farm loans totaling $10.4 million. Reported loans include both originations and purchases of loans during the year.
• For small business loans, the maximum loan size reported was $1 million, and the average was about $61,000. Eighty-seven percent were for amounts under $100,000.
• Among reported small farm loans, the maximum was $500,000, and the average was about $48,000. The majority, 88 percent, were for amounts under $100,000.
• Small business lending varies by region; a variation that closely follows differences in the number of business establishments. For example, New England had 5 percent of the business loans and the region had 5.9 percent of the businesses.
• Small business loans are heavily concentrated in central city and suburban areas (about 80 percent of all small business loans). In lower-income areas, most newly originated small business loans occur in central city census tracts; in higher-income areas, suburban census tracts have the most small business loans.
• For 1996, 32,677 community development loans totaling $17.7 billion were reported by 57 percent of the commercial banks and 46 percent of the savings associations reporting CRA data. On average, community development loans ($542,000) are larger than the typical small business loan reported in the CRA data.

The data may be obtained for $10 in two format options--a CD-ROM software package or an individual institution or aggregate report on paper. The CD-ROM software package includes data for all reporting institutions from around the country. The paper-based report includes an institution's disclosure or an aggregate report for either an individual MSA or all non-MSA counties in a particular state. If you have specific questions about the data or would like to place a data order, please contact the FFIEC at (202) 872-7584.