Recent literature questions the relative advantage of community banks vs. non-community banks in small business funding. Using the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s definition of a community bank, the study re-examines the role of community banks in providing funding to small businesses using the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) small business lending data over the period 2003 to 2016. The empirical results indicate that community banks are still providing 30 percent more small business funding than non-community banks, especially after the Great Recession. This role is even more important in those counties in non-metropolitan areas. In addition, the results indicate that in counties where community banks do not have offices, they provide 48 percent fewer loans compared to non-community banks in counties where they do not have offices, which suggests community banks still use physical offices to maintain their relationship lending advantage. Clearly, from a public policy standpoint, the results support the view that community banks are important because they continue to provide valuable services to small business firms throughout the country.

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社区银行与非社区银行：本地小企业融资的优势在哪里？

最近的文献质疑社区银行与非社区银行在小企业融资方面的相对优势。使用联邦存款保险公司对社区银行的定义，该研究利用 2003 年至 2016 年期间的社区再投资法案 (CRA) 小企业贷款数据，重新审视了社区银行在为小企业提供资金方面的作用。 实证结果表明社区银行提供的小企业资金仍然比非社区银行多 30%，尤其是在大萧条之后。这种作用在非大都市区的县中更为重要。此外，结果表明，在社区银行没有办事处的县，它们提供的贷款比在没有办事处的县的非社区银行少 48%，这表明社区银行仍然使用实体办公室来保持其关系贷款优势。显然，从公共政策的角度来看，结果支持社区银行很重要的观点，因为它们继续为全国的小企业提供有价值的服务。