5 Interesting Facts about the FFIEC List of Distressed and Underserved Census Tracts

Each year, the FFIEC releases a list of Distressed and Underserved Nonmetropolitan Middle-Income Census Tracts (link).  Community Reinvestment Act guidance (see, for example, this link) illustrates the emphasis that bank regulators place on these tracts.  As a lender, you might be interested in learning more about the current lending activity in these census tracts.  In addition,  you may want to find loan production opportunities.  With LendingPatterns™,  you can identify the census tracts in your local lending area.

How can I use the Distressed and Underserved Census Tract list?

The easiest thing to do is to download the spreadsheet from the first link listed above.  Then, filter for your state.  Next, you’ll copy and paste the columns with state code, county code and census tract and paste the list in the Custom Geography section of LendingPatterns™.

One you’ve created the custom geography in LendingPatterns, you can evaluate market share, competitor trends, product offerings, applicant characteristics, etc.  It is possible to use these competitive insights to increase lending opportunities.  LendingPatterns provides market intelligence analysis and forecasting to direct you on how and where to identify areas for new business.

Geographic depiction of the census tracts identified as underserved by FFIEC in 2018

I made a few observations about the list of Census Tracts:

1. Within the 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico, there are 3,588 Census Tracts on the distressed and underserved list. A few states don’t contain non-metro areas and therefore don’t have any tracts on the list.
2. The state with the highest number of census tracts is Kentucky, followed by Georgia and Texas.
3. There were 3,223 lenders (55% of a total of 5,852 reporters) which had at least one application in the underserved census tracts. Are you one of the lenders? Find out using LendingPatterns™.
4. State-charted non-Fed member banks regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) accounted for 36% of the lenders with applications in the underserved areas, followed by credit unions regulated by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) with 30%.

Distribution of Lenders by HMDA Regulator

Learn about the demographics of your custom geography using the Area Demographics report.