Native American Financial Institutions (NAFIs) include banks, credit unions, and loan funds that serve Native communities across the United States and foster financial inclusion in Indian Country. They are distinguished by their public commitments to providing affordable and culturally informed financial services, credit, and capital to Native communities.
Circles on the map below show headquarter locations and asset sizes of NAFIs nationwide. Click a circle to show more information about an individual NAFI. Learn more about what you can find in the map in our related article. For source and definition details, see About the Data.
About the NAFI Data
View the source data
Recognition as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) or as a Minority Depository Institution (MDI) signals a financial entity’s dedication to healthy, stable, and inclusive local economies. We use current lists of Native-focused CDFIs and MDIs to identify what we term Native American Financial Institutions (NAFIs), mapped here.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund maintains the current list of CDFIs. It defines Native CDFIs as those CDFIs with at least 50 percent of their activities serving Native American, Alaska Native, and/or Native Hawaiian people or communities.
Current lists of MDIs are maintained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for banks and by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) for credit unions. For banks, we define Native MDIs as those with a designation of “N” in the Minority Status field, which may indicate Native ownership, a majority of the bank’s board identifying as Native, or both. For credit unions, we define Native MDIs as those listed with “Native Americans” and no other group in the Minority Category(ies) field, indicating that the credit union has self-certified that more than half of its current and eligible potential members and more than half of its current board of directors are Native American.
We define Native banks as banks that are recognized as Native CDFIs, Native MDIs, or both. Banks’ details and financials are drawn from FDIC’s Institution and Financial API endpoints. There are two bank holding companies—that is, companies that own banks—that are themselves Native CDFIs and that own Native CDFI-recognized banks. In these cases, the banks are shown on the map, rather than the holding companies.
We define Native credit unions as credit unions that are recognized as Native CDFIs, Native MDIs, or both. Credit unions’ details and financials are drawn from NCUA’s Credit Union and Corporate Call Report Data.
We define Native loan funds as Native CDFIs that are loan funds. (Because it is limited to depository institutions, the MDI designation does not apply to loan funds.) Loan funds’ details and financials are drawn from 990 (for nonprofit entities) or 990-PF (for private foundation entities) extracts from the Internal Revenue Service’s Annual Extract of Tax-Exempt Organization Financial Data. Because the variables used in the two forms are not identical, fields that do not apply to a specific entity based on its type are shown as “not applicable.” Where an entity has no filings data available from this source, “unavailable” is noted.
Recognition as a CDFI and/or MDI makes an entity eligible for specialized forms of technical and financial support. The CDFI Fund’s Native Initiatives program provides support to Native CDFIs in the form of Technical Assistance grants and Financial Assistance awards through the Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program, as well as the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). Awards shown for an institution represent annual sums of NACA Financial Assistance, NACA Technical Assistance, and HFFI support received by a CDFI, as available through extracts from the CDFI Fund’s Searchable Award Database. Awards data on the map go back three years.
Native Land Areas reflect all Land Area Representations from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and all American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Areas from the U.S. Census Bureau. Geographic shapes have been simplified for faster web performance and do not indicate official land status.
The map reflects data available from all sources as of October 2023.