Fall River-based BankFive has received a grade of “outstanding” on its most recent Community Reinvestment Act examination

The evaluation covers the period from BankFive’s prior evaluation in May of 2015 to the current evaluation date in August of 2018. The Massachusetts Division of Banks conducted this evaluation concurrently with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

CRA exams evaluate a bank on the lending it did in low- to moderate-income communities within its assessment areas. BankFive’s assessment area includes 27 cities and towns, four of which are in the Plymouth County and the remaining 23 towns throughout Bristol County in Massachusetts and the Newport County in Rhode Island.

BankFive made 5.8 percent of its home mortgage loans to borrowers in low-income tracts within its assessment area in 2016, according to its CRA report. The following year, it originated close to 10 percent of home mortgage loans to borrowers in low-income tracts.

The bank originated more than 40 percent of its small business loans to borrowers in low-income tracts within its assessment area in 2016. The following year, that number fell to about 19 percent.

BankFive originated 2 percent of its home mortgage loans to low-income borrowers in 2016 and 3.6 percent to these borrowers the following year. The bank originated about 11 percent of its home mortgage loans to moderate-income borrowers in 2016 and more than 15 percent to these borrowers in 2017.

BankFive also did a good job at lending to businesses with less than $1 million in gross annual revenues.

In 2016, 60 percent of the small business loans originated by the bank went to businesses with a gross annual revenue of $1 million or less. In 2017, that number went down to 49.2 percent, but the CRA examination noted this was mainly due to the competitive commercial lending market.

BankFive is the third financial institution in 2019 to receive an “outstanding” score on its CRA assessment, along with Boston Private and Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union.