County directory · Mississippi

CDFI lenders in Lowndes County, MS

2 are headquartered here. 6 more have a bank or credit-union branch here. 2 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: 2
Branch here: 6
Serve all of MS: 2

None of the lender websites we read names Lowndes 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: Artesia, Columbus, Crawford, Mayhew, Steens.

Lenders compared for Lowndes County

12 with local records

Lender	Local records	Loan sizes	Head office
1. BankFirst Financial Services Bank or thrift, Columbus MS	headquarters here; 3 offices here; 17 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 95 home loans here, 2025	ask	10 mi
2. Citizens National Bank of Meridian Bank or thrift, Meridian MS	2 offices here; 3 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 19 home loans here, 2025	ask	78 mi
3. Bank of Commerce Bank or thrift, Greenwood MS	2 offices here; 17 home loans here, 2025	ask	98 mi
4. BankFirst Capital Corporation Bank holding company, Columbus MS	headquarters here; 3 offices here	ask	10 mi
5. Guaranty Bank and Trust Company Bank or thrift, Belzoni MS	7 home loans here, 2025	ask	119 mi
6. Community Bank of Mississippi Bank or thrift, Flowood MS	6 home loans here, 2025	ask	123 mi
7. Bank of Vernon Bank or thrift, Vernon AL	3 offices here	ask	29 mi
8. First Vernon Bancshares, Inc. Bank holding company, Vernon AL	3 offices here	ask	29 mi
9. Peoples Bank Bank or thrift, Mendenhall MS	3 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026	$500–$5M	131 mi
10. Champions Funding, LLC Loan fund, Gilbert AZ	3 home loans here, 2025	up to $3M	1,338 mi
11. Citizens National Banc Corp. Bank holding company, Meridian MS	2 offices here	ask	78 mi
12. Commerce Bancorp, Inc. Bank holding company, Greenwood MS	2 offices here	ask	98 mi

11 of these 12 lenders have received CDFI Fund awards, together $102.7M in fiscal years 2005–2024 (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

10 lenders

4 head offices and 40 branches or offices of 10 lenders on this page, within 30 miles of the centre of Lowndes County. Lenders with no office nearby may still lend here; many work by phone and online.

Loan types confirmed on these lenders' websites

Auto / vehicle loans (2 lenders)
Equipment loans (2 lenders)
Personal / consumer loans (2 lenders)
SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage) (2 lenders)
Small-business loans (2 lenders)
Commercial real estate loans (1 lender)

Banks and credit unions with a branch in this county

8 certified CDFIs have at least one office in Lowndes 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 151 originated home loans for properties in Lowndes County in 2025 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: 14% of the 1,063 home loans that all HMDA lenders reported here.

Plus 4 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 Lowndes County

Official statistics

Median household income in Lowndes County is $53,812, 5% below the Mississippi figure of $56,447 (ACS 2020–2024).

Businesses here took 33.3 SBA-backed loans per 1,000 employer businesses over FY2020–FY2026: more than the median Mississippi county (19.1), rank 22 of 82.

Measure	Lowndes County	Mississippi
Businesses with paid employees (CBP 2023)	1,440 (2.4% of the state)	60,465
…of which under 20 employees	85%	85%
Businesses without employees (Nonemployer Statistics 2023)	5,026	253,350
Median household income (ACS 2020–2024)	$53,812 (5% below the state)	$56,447
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals, all lenders, FY2020–FY2026	48 (47 7(a), 1 504)	2,067
…per 1,000 businesses with employees	33.3 (rank 22 of 82 Mississippi counties)	19.1 (median county)
Median SBA 7(a) loan, all lenders	$208,200	$222,350
…with a certified CDFI as lender, CDC or third-party lender	25 (52%)	1,086 (53%)
Variable-rate 7(a): median rate over prime at approval, FY2024–26	2.12 pts (14 loans; 14% at the SBA maximum)	2.5 pts (10% at the maximum)

Approvals by fiscal year: FY2020 5 · FY2021 11 · FY2022 11 · FY2023 4 · FY2024 4 · FY2025 8 · FY2026 5.

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 25 SBA approvals (24 7(a) loans and 1 504 project) for borrowers in Lowndes County in fiscal years 2020–2026, from 5 CDFIs. The 7(a) loans total $10.9M approved.

CDFIs with 3 or more: BankFirst Financial Services (17), Peoples Bank (3), Citizens National Bank of Meridian (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

792 loans and investments totaling $127.5M (median $76,180) were reported to the CDFI Fund for borrowers and projects in Lowndes County in fiscal year 2022, by 19 reporting CDFIs.

Purpose (CDFI Fund category)	Count	Total	Median
Non-real estate microenterprise	211	$5M	$20,720
Non-real estate business	199	$37.1M	$86,385
Home purchase	157	$26M	$117,000
Home improvement	64	$4.6M	$50,000
Real estate: single-family housing rehabilitation	55	$11M	$140,250
Real estate: commercial construction, permanent or acquisition	55	$17.9M	$217,589
Other purposes	51	$26M

Of 67 individual borrowers whose income was reported, 24% had family income at or below 80% of the area median.

CDFI banks and credit unions also reported 614 consumer loans in Lowndes County totaling $5.6M (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 152 · FY2019 203 · FY2020 1,018 · FY2021 1,330.

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.

Headquartered in Lowndes County

The official list gives a headquarters address here. Check each lender's page for where it lends.

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

Mississippi State University MS-SBDCSmall Business Development Center · 60 Research Blvd., Ste. 105E, MS State, MS 39759662-325-8684 · about 21 miles from the centre of Lowndes County

Housing counseling

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.