A community bank is a depository institution that is typically locally owned and operated.
Lending decisions are made by people who understand the local needs of families, businesses, and farmers.
base this term on aggregate assets size with varying definitions such as less than $1 billion (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) up to less than $10 billion (Federal Reserve Board and Government Accountability Office).
[1] Beyond size (as measured by assets), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) imposes a number of additional requirements on institutions classified as community banks.
[1][3][4] The decline in community banking prevalence in the United States has drawn the attention of economists and policymakers, some of whom have argue that community banks play an important role in macroeconomic stability.