Method
Sources and methodology
Where every figure on CDFI Atlas comes from, how current it is, and what it does and does not mean. How we identify each lender and read its website is described on About.
Sources and how often they change
| Data | Publisher | Period used | We refresh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certified CDFIs (names, types, addresses, websites) | CDFI Fund, U.S. Treasury | list dated 21 Oct 2026 | monthly |
| Loan products, sizes, service areas, rates, contacts | each lender's own website | read 29 Oct 2026–4 Nov 2026 | every quarter |
| SBA 7(a) and 504 loan approvals | U.S. Small Business Administration | FY2020–FY2026, data as of 30 Sep 2026 | quarterly |
| Home loans (HMDA) | FFIEC / CFPB | 2025 | yearly |
| Loans reported to the CDFI Fund by award holders | CDFI Fund data releases | latest released fiscal year (shown on each page) | yearly |
| CDFI Fund awards | CDFI Fund award database | all award years | yearly |
| Size of nonprofit loan funds (Form 990) | IRS annual extracts | returns processed in 2022–2024 | yearly |
| Bank and credit-union offices, assets, loan mix | FDIC, FFIEC and NCUA | FDIC offices 30 Oct 2026, NCUA 30 Jun 2026 | quarterly |
| Businesses with employees, by size | Census Bureau, County Business Patterns | 2023 | yearly (new year each spring or summer) |
| Businesses without employees | Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics | 2023 | yearly |
| Median household income | Census Bureau, American Community Survey (table B19013) | 2020–2024 5-year estimates | each December |
| Prime rate | Federal Reserve H.15 via FRED (series DPRIME) | latest 7.00% on 9 Nov 2026 | at every rebuild |
| ZIP code locations | GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) | postal code file | yearly |
| Map points for head offices and credit-union offices | U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder; FDIC office coordinates | geocoded 15 Nov 2026 | with each list or branch refresh |
Each page shows the date of the data it uses. When a source publishes a new period we replace the old one; we never mix periods within one figure.
Local statistics on county pages
County pages compare the county with its state using official statistics: businesses with paid employees and the share with fewer than 20 employees (County Business Patterns), businesses without employees (Nonemployer Statistics), median household income (American Community Survey 5-year estimates, so a smaller county's figure has a wider margin of error), and SBA-backed lending by every SBA lender, not only CDFIs.
- SBA approvals are counted by the county of the borrower's ZIP code, for fiscal years 2020–2026 (October to September). Approval is not disbursement, and SBA Microloans are not in these files.
- Per 1,000 businesses = SBA approvals over those years divided by the county's businesses with paid employees, times 1,000. The rank compares all counties of the state; the state figure shown is the median county.
- With a certified CDFI = approvals where a certified CDFI was the lender, the Certified Development Company or the third-party lender.
- Rate over prime = the interest rate the SBA recorded at approval minus the prime rate on that day, for variable-rate 7(a) loans in the latest three fiscal years. Lenders may peg to prime or to an optional peg rate, so it is approximate. “At the SBA maximum” means the loan was priced at the highest spread the SBA allows for its size.
- Counts under 3 are not shown; medians and rate figures need at least 10 loans. A county whose code differs between the Census Bureau and our ZIP data (for example Connecticut, which now reports by planning region) shows no Census figures.
Lenders compared on a county page are ordered by how many kinds of local record we hold for them (their website names the county or a town in it, headquarters, a branch, SBA loans or HMDA home loans for borrowers there), then by the number of those records, then by distance. It is not a rating, and no lender can pay for a place.
How a lender compares
Lender pages set the lender's own figures beside a stated peer group of other certified CDFIs (the lender itself left out), with the size of the group:
- SBA loan size: the median 7(a) loan it approved, against all 7(a) loans in its home state and against the other certified CDFIs with at least 10 7(a) loans.
- Rate over prime on its variable-rate 7(a) loans, against all SBA lenders in its home state.
- Largest loan its website states, against other CDFIs of the same type whose websites state a maximum (shown only when at least 10 do).
- Total assets from the latest Form 990, against certified loan funds in the same state with a Form 990 (nationwide when fewer than 5).
- Banks and credit unions: total assets, loans as a share of assets and the change in loans over the year from the latest Call Report, against certified banks (or credit unions) in the same state (nationwide when fewer than 5).
- Home loans: the number it originated in the latest HMDA year, against the other certified CDFIs that reported at least 3. Volume only: we never show approval or denial rates.
- Then and now: SBA approvals in fiscal years 2023–24 against 2025–26, and loans held a year ago against now (Call Report), each with the lender's rank among the same peers at both dates. Ranks count from the largest.
- Same loan type, nearby, lower stated rate: certified CDFIs whose head office is within 50 miles and whose own website states a starting rate at least 0.5 points lower for the same loan type; consumer loans only where both state an APR. Head-office distance, not service area: check that a lender serves you.
- Each lender page has a “How these comparisons were worked out” table: measure, peer group, number of peers and where the lender sits.
- “Larger than X%” means the share of the peer group with a smaller value. These are descriptions of past records, not ratings, and say nothing about your chance of approval.
Rates: benchmarks, not offers
Where a lender's website states a business-loan rate, we show it with the date we read it and the prime rate on that date. Consumer-loan rates appear only as the APR the lender states. Your rate depends on the loan and the lender's review: ask for a written quote.
The prime rate was 7.00% on 9 Nov 2026 (FRED DPRIME). The SBA caps the rate on a variable-rate 7(a) loan at a spread over the base rate that depends on the loan size (SBA 7(a) terms, read 15 Nov 2026):
| Loan amount | Maximum variable rate | With prime at 7.00% |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 or less | prime + 6.5 points | 13.50% |
| $50,001 to $250,000 | prime + 6 points | 13.00% |
| $250,001 to $350,000 | prime + 4.5 points | 11.50% |
| more than $350,000 | prime + 3 points | 10.00% |
Fixed-rate 7(a) loans have their own maximums, which the SBA publishes separately. Express, Export and some other 7(a) programs have different rules.
Maps
The Show on map button on lender and county pages places each head office at the street address on the official list, using the Census Bureau's geocoder, which estimates a position along the street, so the point is the right block rather than the exact door. Where the list address cannot be placed (often a P.O. box), the point is the main office from the FDIC or NCUA record. Where neither can be placed, the point is the middle of the ZIP code area and is drawn as a ring, marked approximate. Bank branches use the FDIC's own coordinates; credit-union offices are geocoded the same way. The map background is OpenStreetMap data served by OpenFreeMap.
Rounding and missing data
Money in tables is shown in whole dollars, or in millions with one decimal for Form 990 balance sheets; percentages are whole numbers unless a decimal changes the meaning. The same figure is rounded the same way everywhere on a page. A blank or a missing section means the source has no figure for that place or lender, never zero; where a source says zero, we show 0.
Spotted an error? Use the contact page and name the page; see also corrections and the disclaimer.
Source: CDFI Atlas, cdfiatlas.com/methodology/. © 2026 CDFI Atlas. Quoting with a link is welcome; republishing the pages or the compiled data is not (terms of use).