 TITLE: What Is a Community Bank? CONTENT: What Makes Community Banks Different?\n-------------------------------------\nAt the end of 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) counted 4,750 community banks in the U.S. Within those ranks, there's plenty of variation. Some community banks are small and genuinely quaint; others are sophisticated operations with award-winning technology. Umpqua Bank, based in Oregon, won a 2020 customer experience innovation award for its human digital banking strategy. But it's also a local favorite for its community partnership, which includes volunteerism, community grants, sharing expertise with local businesses and providing space for community events like \"stitch and bitch\" knitting circles.\nThough there's no universal definition of what qualifies a financial institution as a community bank, here's a quick comparison. Each of the four largest U.S. banks has trillions of dollars in assets, while one common guideline defines community banks as having no more than $10 billion in assets. In its 2020 study on community banking, the FDIC describes community banks as having these characteristics:\n*   Lending and deposit gathering within a limited market area\n*   Relationship lending, which relies on specialized knowledge gained through long-term business relationships\n*   Private ownership, prioritizing the long-term interest of local communities over the demands of capital markets. END