County directory · Mississippi

CDFI lenders in Forrest County, MS

16 have a bank or credit-union branch here. 4 more say they serve all of Mississippi. Sources: lender websites (29 Oct 2026–4 Nov 2026), the CDFI Fund list (21 Oct 2026) and FDIC/NCUA branch records.

Name this county: 0
Based here: 0
Branch here: 16
Serve all of MS: 4

None of the lender websites we read names Forrest County; the lenders below are based here, have an office here or serve the whole state. Lenders based elsewhere may lend here too. Search your exact ZIP code in the finder to include lenders based nearby. Towns in this county: Brooklyn, Hattiesburg, Petal.

Lenders compared for Forrest County

23 with local records

Lender	Local records	Loan sizes	Head office
1. Community Bank of Mississippi Bank or thrift, Flowood MS	1 office here; 5 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 92 home loans here, 2025	ask	89 mi
2. BankFirst Financial Services Bank or thrift, Columbus MS	2 offices here; 6 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 35 home loans here, 2025	ask	166 mi
3. Citizens National Bank of Meridian Bank or thrift, Meridian MS	2 offices here; 5 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 13 home loans here, 2025	ask	86 mi
4. Southern Bancorp Bank Bank or thrift, Arkadelphia AR	1 office here; 4 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 10 home loans here, 2025	ask	297 mi
5. PRIORITYONE BANK Bank or thrift, Magee MS	1 office here; 40 home loans here, 2025	ask	50 mi
6. First Southern Bank Bank or thrift, Columbia MS	1 office here; 21 home loans here, 2025	ask	31 mi
7. Peoples Bank Bank or thrift, Mendenhall MS	12 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 4 home loans here, 2025	$500–$5M	58 mi
8. First Bank Bank or thrift, McComb MS	1 office here; 13 home loans here, 2025	ask	69 mi
9. Great Southern Bank Bank or thrift, Meridian MS	1 office here; 7 home loans here, 2025	ask	86 mi
10. Merchants & Marine Bank Bank or thrift, Pascagoula MS	52 home loans here, 2025	ask	74 mi
11. Citizens Bank Bank or thrift, Columbia MS	24 home loans here, 2025	ask	31 mi
12. HOPE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION Credit union, Jackson MS	20 home loans here, 2025	ask	91 mi
13. THE CITIZENS BANK OF PHILADELPHIA, MISSISSIPPI Bank or thrift, Philadelphia MS	4 home loans here, 2025	ask	105 mi
14. COVINGTON COUNTY BANK Bank or thrift, Collins MS	3 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026	ask	34 mi
15. First State Bank Bank or thrift, Waynesboro MS	3 home loans here, 2025	ask	47 mi
16. Citizens National Banc Corp. Bank holding company, Meridian MS	2 offices here	ask	86 mi
17. BankFirst Capital Corporation Bank holding company, Columbus MS	2 offices here	ask	166 mi
18. First Federal Bancorp Bank holding company, Columbia MS	1 office here	ask	31 mi
19. PriorityOne Capital Corporation Bank holding company, Magee MS	1 office here	ask	50 mi
20. First Southwest Corporation McComb, MS Bank holding company, McComb MS	1 office here	ask	69 mi
21. Great Southern Capital Corporation Bank holding company, Meridian MS	1 office here	ask	85 mi
22. Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Inc. Bank holding company, Flowood MS	1 office here	ask	89 mi
23. SOUTHERN BANCORP INC Bank holding company, Arkadelphia AR	1 office here	ask	297 mi

17 of these 23 lenders have received CDFI Fund awards, together $183.7M in fiscal years 1996–2024 (CDFI Fund award database; each lender page lists its awards). An award funds the lender, not a particular borrower.

Order: how many kinds of local record we hold (its website names the county or a town in it, headquarters, a branch, SBA loans or HMDA home loans for borrowers here), then the number of those records, then the head office's distance from the county centre. Loan sizes are the range the lender's website states. It is not a rating and nobody pays for a place. SBA loans: SBA 7(a)/504 data (FY2020–FY2026, 3 or more shown); home loans: HMDA 2025 originations (3 or more shown); branches: FDIC/NCUA; distances are straight lines from the average position of the county's ZIP codes.

Where these lenders have offices

21 lenders

59 branches or offices of 21 lenders on this page, within 30 miles of the centre of Forrest County. Lenders with no office nearby may still lend here; many work by phone and online.

Banks and credit unions with a branch in this county

16 certified CDFIs have at least one office in Forrest County (FDIC office data as of 30 Oct 2026). A branch shows presence, not a stated service area; credit unions also require membership.

CDFI mortgage lenders active here

Certified CDFIs reported 348 originated home loans for properties in Forrest County in 2025 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: 24% of the 1,453 home loans that all HMDA lenders reported here.

Plus 8 more certified CDFIs with fewer than 3 loans here each (not listed).

A lender headquartered far away can appear here: HMDA counts the county of the property, not of the lender. Banks and credit unions below the HMDA reporting thresholds and most loan funds do not report, so other CDFIs may also lend here.

Source: FFIEC Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data for 2025, snapshot frozen 2 Jun 2026, loan-level records read through the CFPB HMDA Data Browser API on 3 Nov 2026. Originated loans only; applications that were denied, withdrawn or not accepted are not counted. HMDA publishes each loan amount as the middle of a $10,000 band, so totals and medians are approximate. Counts under 3 are not shown. How we match lenders.

Small business and SBA lending in Forrest County

Official statistics

Median household income in Forrest County is $53,640, 5% below the Mississippi figure of $56,447 (ACS 2020–2024).

Businesses here took 49.4 SBA-backed loans per 1,000 employer businesses over FY2020–FY2026: more than the median Mississippi county (19.1), rank 16 of 82.

Measure	Forrest County	Mississippi
Businesses with paid employees (CBP 2023)	1,741 (2.9% of the state)	60,465
…of which under 20 employees	81%	85%
Businesses without employees (Nonemployer Statistics 2023)	6,154	253,350
Median household income (ACS 2020–2024)	$53,640 (5% below the state)	$56,447
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals, all lenders, FY2020–FY2026	86 (85 7(a), 1 504)	2,067
…per 1,000 businesses with employees	49.4 (rank 16 of 82 Mississippi counties)	19.1 (median county)
Median SBA 7(a) loan, all lenders	$196,000	$222,350
…with a certified CDFI as lender, CDC or third-party lender	37 (43%)	1,086 (53%)
Variable-rate 7(a): median rate over prime at approval, FY2024–26	2.5 pts (34 loans; 12% at the SBA maximum)	2.5 pts (10% at the maximum)

Approvals by fiscal year: FY2020 16 · FY2021 13 · FY2022 11 · FY2023 11 · FY2024 14 · FY2025 15 · FY2026 6.

For comparison, not an offer. SBA figures count approvals by every SBA lender for borrowers whose ZIP code lies in the county, not only CDFIs; approval is not disbursement. Rate over prime = the SBA's recorded initial rate minus the prime rate on the approval day; SBA caps it at 3 to 6.5 points depending on loan size (current prime rate and caps: methodology).

Sources: Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 and American Community Survey 2020–2024 (table B19013); SBA 7(a) & 504 FOIA data as of 30 Sep 2026; prime rate: FRED DPRIME; SBA maximums: SBA 7(a) terms. Downloaded 15 Nov 2026. How we compute these.

SBA loans made here by CDFIs

SBA data as of 30 Sep 2026

Certified CDFIs were the lender, the CDC or the third-party lender on 37 SBA approvals (37 7(a) loans) for borrowers in Forrest County in fiscal years 2020–2026, from 8 CDFIs. The 7(a) loans total $16.6M approved.

CDFIs with 3 or more: Peoples Bank (12), BankFirst Financial Services (6), Citizens National Bank of Meridian (5), Community Bank of Mississippi (5), Southern Bancorp Bank (4), COVINGTON COUNTY BANK (3). 2 more CDFIs made 1 or 2 each.

Counted by the county of the borrower's ZIP code. Approval is not disbursement. These are only the SBA loans of certified CDFIs; most SBA lenders here are not CDFIs, and CDFIs also lend outside SBA programs.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 FOIA loan data, files as of 30 Sep 2026, downloaded 3 Nov 2026. Our counts, cancelled approvals left out. How we match lenders.

CDFI lending recorded here (FY2022)

CDFI Fund data, released Dec 2024

872 loans and investments totaling $327M (median $104,670) were reported to the CDFI Fund for borrowers and projects in Forrest County in fiscal year 2022, by 32 reporting CDFIs.

Purpose (CDFI Fund category)	Count	Total	Median
Home purchase	167	$35.2M	$153,153
Non-real estate microenterprise	151	$3.2M	$20,000
Real estate: single-family housing rehabilitation	144	$26.3M	$115,194
Real estate: commercial construction, permanent or acquisition	123	$92.5M	$174,064
Non-real estate business	105	$83.6M	$131,443
Home improvement	105	$20.2M	$71,077
Other purposes	75	$63.9M

Of 13 individual borrowers whose income was reported, 54% had family income at or below 80% of the area median.

CDFI banks and credit unions also reported 613 consumer loans in Forrest County totaling $30.1M (Consumer Loan Report, tract totals, so no median); they counted 5% of them as serving low-income borrowers.

Loans and investments reported in other years: FY2018 165 · FY2019 194 · FY2020 525 · FY2021 771.

Only CDFIs that hold an active CDFI Fund award (CDFI Program, Native American CDFI Assistance or the CDFI Rapid Response Program) report these transactions, so this is not all lending by the certified CDFIs on this page. The Fund masks which CDFI made each loan, so we cannot say which lender listed here made them.

Source: CDFI Fund, CDFI/NACA/CDFI RRP Program Award Recipient Data Release, Transaction Level Report and Consumer Loan Report public files for fiscal year 2022 (released Dec 2024; downloaded 3 Nov 2026). Amounts are original loan or investment amounts as reported. Place = the 2010 census tract of each record. How we count.

Say they serve all of Mississippi

Free help before you apply

These offices give free or low-cost advice: a Small Business Development Center or SCORE mentor can help with the business plan, cash-flow projections and paperwork most business lenders ask for, and a HUD-approved housing counselor can help with a homebuyer course, a budget or a missed mortgage payment. Some counseling agencies also lend; using their advice does not commit you to their loans. Call ahead to check hours and what they cover.

Business advice

University of Southern Mississippi MS-SBDCSmall Business Development Center · 6197 Highway 49 South, Room 215, Hattiesburg, MS 39406601-266-5892

Housing counseling

Breakthrough Community Services, Inc.HUD-approved housing counselor · 1313 Country Club Rd, Hattiesburg, MS 39401601-582-3475

Sources: SBA local assistance listings, read 6 Nov 2026; HUD's list of approved housing counseling agencies (open-data version last updated 9 Apr 2025). For the current list and the services each agency offers, use the CFPB's housing counselor search (it uses HUD's list) or call HUD at 800-569-4287. Offices are placed by ZIP code, so distances are approximate.