County directory · Mississippi
CDFI lenders in Smith County, MS
4 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
- 4
- Serve all of MS
- 4
None of the lender websites we read names Smith 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: Mize, Raleigh, Taylorsville.
Lenders compared for Smith County
9 with local records| Lender | Local records | Loan sizes | Head office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Community Bank of Mississippi Bank or thrift, Flowood MS | 1 office here; 6 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 69 home loans here, 2025 | ask | 45 mi |
| 2. Peoples Bank Bank or thrift, Mendenhall MS | 43 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026; 7 home loans here, 2025 | $500–$5M | 19 mi |
| 3. BankFirst Financial Services Bank or thrift, Columbus MS | 1 office here; 6 home loans here, 2025 | ask | 129 mi |
| 4. PRIORITYONE BANK Bank or thrift, Magee MS | 9 home loans here, 2025 | ask | 16 mi |
| 5. COVINGTON COUNTY BANK Bank or thrift, Collins MS | 5 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026 | ask | 17 mi |
| 6. Bank of Forest Bank or thrift, Forest MS | 5 home loans here, 2025 | ask | 30 mi |
| 7. Bank of Commerce Bank or thrift, Greenwood MS | 4 home loans here, 2025 | ask | 118 mi |
| 8. Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Inc. Bank holding company, Flowood MS | 1 office here | ask | 45 mi |
| 9. BankFirst Capital Corporation Bank holding company, Columbus MS | 1 office here | ask | 129 mi |
7 of these 9 lenders have received CDFI Fund awards, together $72.4M in fiscal years 2013–2024 (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
7 lenders3 head offices and 36 branches or offices of 7 lenders on this page, within 30 miles of the centre of Smith County. Lenders with no office nearby may still lend here; many work by phone and online.
Head officeBranch or officeApproximate (ZIP code area)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, © OpenMapTiles, tiles OpenFreeMap. Head-office points: U.S. Census Bureau geocoder.
Banks and credit unions with a branch in this county
4 certified CDFIs have at least one office in Smith County (FDIC office data as of 30 Oct 2026). A branch shows presence, not a stated service area; credit unions also require membership.
- BankFirst Capital CorporationBank holding company · Columbus, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Equipment loans, Personal / consumer loans, SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage)…1 office in Smith CountyVerified
- BankFirst Financial ServicesBank or thrift · Columbus, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Commercial real estate loans, Equipment loans, Personal / consumer loans…1 office in Smith CountyVerified
- Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Inc.Bank holding company · Flowood, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Home mortgages, Personal / consumer loans, SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage)…1 office in Smith CountyVerified
- Community Bank of MississippiBank or thrift · Flowood, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Home mortgages, Personal / consumer loans, SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage)…1 office in Smith CountyVerified
CDFI mortgage lenders active here
Certified CDFIs reported 108 originated home loans for properties in Smith County in 2025 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: 39% of the 277 home loans that all HMDA lenders reported here.
- Community Bank of MississippiBank or thrift · Flowood, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Home mortgages, Personal / consumer loans, SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage)…69 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
- PRIORITYONE BANKBank or thrift · Magee, MS9 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Official list only
- Peoples BankBank or thrift · Mendenhall, MSAgriculture / farm loans, Auto / vehicle loans, Commercial real estate loans, Credit-builder loans…7 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
- BankFirst Financial ServicesBank or thrift · Columbus, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Commercial real estate loans, Equipment loans, Personal / consumer loans…6 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
- Bank of ForestBank or thrift · Forest, MSHome repair / improvement loans, Home mortgages, Personal / consumer loans5 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
- Bank of CommerceBank or thrift · Greenwood, MSAgriculture / farm loans, Auto / vehicle loans, Credit-builder loans, Home repair / improvement loans…4 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
Plus 6 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 Smith County
Official statisticsMedian household income in Smith County is $60,916, 8% above the Mississippi figure of $56,447 (ACS 2020–2024).
Businesses here took 402.5 SBA-backed loans per 1,000 employer businesses over FY2020–FY2026: more than the median Mississippi county (19.1), rank 2 of 82.
| Measure | Smith County | Mississippi |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses with paid employees (CBP 2023) | 159 (0.3% of the state) | 60,465 |
| …of which under 20 employees | 87% | 85% |
| Businesses without employees (Nonemployer Statistics 2023) | 986 | 253,350 |
| Median household income (ACS 2020–2024) | $60,916 (8% above the state) | $56,447 |
| SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals, all lenders, FY2020–FY2026 | 64 (64 7(a), 0 504) | 2,067 |
| …per 1,000 businesses with employees | 402.5 (rank 2 of 82 Mississippi counties) | 19.1 (median county) |
| Median SBA 7(a) loan, all lenders | $82,350 | $222,350 |
| …with a certified CDFI as lender, CDC or third-party lender | 59 (92%) | 1,086 (53%) |
| Variable-rate 7(a): median rate over prime at approval, FY2024–26 | 2 pts (13 loans; 0% at the SBA maximum) | 2.5 pts (10% at the maximum) |
Approvals by fiscal year: FY2020 10 · FY2021 15 · FY2022 8 · FY2023 9 · FY2024 9 · FY2025 5 · FY2026 8.
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 2026Certified CDFIs were the lender, the CDC or the third-party lender on 59 SBA approvals (59 7(a) loans) for borrowers in Smith County in fiscal years 2020–2026, from 6 CDFIs. The 7(a) loans total $19.7M approved.
CDFIs with 3 or more: Peoples Bank (43), Community Bank of Mississippi (6), COVINGTON COUNTY BANK (5). 3 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 2024256 loans and investments totaling $20.6M (median $40,466) were reported to the CDFI Fund for borrowers and projects in Smith County in fiscal year 2022, by 11 reporting CDFIs.
| Purpose (CDFI Fund category) | Count | Total | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-real estate microenterprise | 118 | $2.3M | $17,922 |
| Non-real estate business | 55 | $7.4M | $89,330 |
| Home purchase | 37 | $3.6M | $67,266 |
| Home improvement | 17 | $1.1M | $50,000 |
| Real estate: commercial construction, permanent or acquisition | 11 | $2.1M | $52,440 |
| Real estate: single-family housing construction | 9 | $3.1M | $297,000 |
| Other purposes | 9 | $967,843 |
CDFI banks and credit unions also reported 430 consumer loans in Smith County totaling $4.8M (Consumer Loan Report, tract totals, so no median); they counted 2% of them as serving low-income borrowers.
Loans and investments reported in other years: FY2018 187 · FY2019 192 · FY2020 157 · FY2021 209.
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
- Bank of CommerceBank or thrift · Greenwood, MSAgriculture / farm loans, Auto / vehicle loans, Credit-builder loans, Home repair / improvement loans…Verified
- BankFirst Capital CorporationBank holding company · Columbus, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Equipment loans, Personal / consumer loans, SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage)…Verified
- BankFirst Financial ServicesBank or thrift · Columbus, MSAuto / vehicle loans, Commercial real estate loans, Equipment loans, Personal / consumer loans…Verified
- Renaissance Community Loan Fund, Inc.Loan fund · Gulfport, MSHome repair / improvement loans, Home mortgages, Small-business loansVerified
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
- East Central Community College MS-SBDCSmall Business Development Center · 52 9th St., Decatur, MS 39327601-635-6296 · about 42 miles from the centre of Smith County
- Mississippi SCORESCORE mentoring · PO Box 12085, Jackson, MS 39236800-634-0245 · about 48 miles from the centre of Smith County
- Jackson State University Women's Business CenterWomen's Business Center · 1400 John R. Lynch Street, College of Business, 3rd Floor, Suite 332, Jackson, MS 39217601-979-4186 · about 49 miles from the centre of Smith County
Housing counseling
- Breakthrough Community Services, Inc.HUD-approved housing counselor · 1313 Country Club Rd, Hattiesburg, MS 39401601-582-3475 · about 43 miles from the centre of Smith County
- Mississippi Housing Partnership, Inc.HUD-approved housing counselor · 1217 N West St, Jackson, MS 39202601-969-1895 · about 49 miles from the centre of Smith County
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.
Other Mississippi counties
Source: CDFI Atlas, cdfiatlas.com/states/ms/counties/smith-county/. © 2026 CDFI Atlas. Quoting with a link is welcome; republishing the pages or the compiled data is not (terms of use).