MIDDLEBURY — National Bank of Middlebury has been awarded an “outstanding” Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) performance by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate. Banking institutions are encouraged to reinvest in their communities — and to halt discriminatory lending practices (such as lending exclusively to high-income areas and avoiding low- and moderate-income credit applicants).
The bank’s performance under the lending test was determined to be “outstanding.” NBM originated a substantial majority of its primary loan products within its market area. The distribution of loans reflected excellent penetration among individuals of different income levels. NBM’s loan-to-deposit ratio was rated reasonable given the bank’s size, its market area credit needs and local competition. The bank received no formal complaints related to lending during the evaluation timeline.
NBM is a full-service intrastate institution offering a standard array of traditional loan and deposit products to retail and business customers. NBM’s primary loan products based on originations in the time period examined were residential mortgages including home purchase, refinance and home improvement loans. According to the 2013 peer mortgage market share data NBM ranks first of 23 lenders for home purchase loans with 17 percent market share. NBM ranks second of 33 lenders for home refinancing loans with a 10 percent market share.
Also noted by the bank’s examiners, NBM demonstrated a strong commitment to its community through community development activities that assisted low- and moderate-income families, and its activities reflect the bank’s overall strategic mission to improve, develop and sustain affordable housing in its local and surrounding communities. The bank offers a variety of special credit programs to meet the needs of borrowers. It also supported related efforts within its communities including meals to low-income children and access to child-care and adult-care food programs for low- and moderate-income individuals.