--- title: "Total Loans & Leases: definition, formula, and thresholds" description: "Total loans and leases is the gross amount a bank has lent out (commercial, real estate, consumer, and agricultural credit) before subtracting the allowance for credit losses. It is usually a bank's largest asset and its primary earning engine." canonical_url: https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/total-loans/ source: BankRegReports category: "Liquidity & Balance Sheet" units: "$" schedule: "Schedule RC-C" --- # Total Loans & Leases > Total loans and leases is the gross amount a bank has lent out (commercial, real estate, consumer, and agricultural credit) before subtracting the allowance for credit losses. It is usually a bank's largest asset and its primary earning engine. ## Formula ``` Total Loans & Leases = Real Estate + Commercial & Industrial + Consumer + Agricultural + Other (gross) ``` Schedule RC-C breaks the loan book into categories. The gross figure is before the allowance for credit losses; subtracting the allowance gives 'net loans,' which is what appears on the asset side of Schedule RC. ## Why it matters Loans generate the bulk of interest income but also carry the bulk of credit risk. The size and mix of the loan book drive both earnings and the asset-quality and concentration ratios examiners watch most closely. ## How to read it Total loans is best read as a trend and a mix. Rapid loan growth well above peers can signal loosening underwriting; the category breakdown (especially commercial real estate and construction) reveals concentration risk that the headline number hides. ## Thresholds | Range | Reading | What it means | |---|---|---| | Steady, diversified growth | Strong | Loan growth funded by deposits across a diversified book. | | In line with peers | Adequate | Growth roughly matching the peer group and the funding base. | | Rapid / concentrated | Watch | Fast growth or heavy CRE/construction tilt warrants a closer look. | | Outsized vs. capital | Concern | Aggressive growth relative to capital is a recurring failure pattern. | ## Worked example A $2 billion community bank reporting $1.4 billion in total loans and leases has a 70% loan-to-asset posture. If $600 million of that sits in commercial real estate, the CRE-concentration ratio (not the loan total) is what an examiner zeroes in on. ## Questions ### Is 'total loans' gross or net of the allowance? The Schedule RC-C total is gross. Net loans (gross less the allowance for credit losses) is the figure carried on the balance sheet (Schedule RC). ### Do total loans include loans held for sale? Yes. The Schedule RC-C total includes loans held for sale (typically mortgages awaiting sale or securitization) as well as loans held for investment. Schedule RC shows held-for-sale loans (item 4.a) separately from loans held for investment (item 4.b). ## Sources - [FFIEC Call Report Schedule RC-C (Loans and Lease Financing Receivables)](https://www.ffiec.gov/sites/default/files/data/reporting-forms/FFIEC031_FFIEC041_202606_i.pdf) (PDF) ## Related metrics - [Total Deposits](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/total-deposits/): Total deposits is the sum of all money customers have placed with a bank (checking, savings, money market, and time deposits) across domestic and foreign offices. It is a bank's primary and cheapest source of funding. - [Loan-to-Deposit Ratio](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/loan-to-deposit/): The loan-to-deposit ratio (LTD) is a bank's total loans divided by its total deposits, expressed as a percentage. It shows how much of the bank's deposit funding is lent out rather than held in cash and securities. - [Commercial Real Estate Concentration Ratio](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/cre-concentration/): The CRE Concentration Ratio measures supervisory commercial real estate loans (construction and land development + multifamily + non-owner-occupied CRE + loans to finance CRE not secured by real estate) as a percentage of Tier 1 capital plus the allowance for credit losses. The interagency guidance threshold of 300% is the most-watched CRE risk indicator in community banking. - [Construction Loan Concentration](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/construction-concentration/): The Construction Loan Concentration measures construction, land, and land development loans as a percentage of Tier 1 capital plus the allowance for credit losses. The 2006 interagency guidance threshold of 100% is the most-watched construction risk indicator. - [Net Charge-Off Ratio](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/nco-ratio/): The Net Charge-Off ratio (annualized) measures loans actually written off as uncollectible (less subsequent recoveries) divided by average loans outstanding. It is the realized credit loss experience of the bank. - [Commercial & Industrial Loans](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/ci-loans/): Commercial and industrial (C&I) loans are bank loans to businesses for purposes other than real estate: working capital lines, equipment and inventory financing, and term loans repaid from the company's operating cash flow. They are the core product of business banking. ## About this document This is the markdown twin of the page named in `canonical_url` above. Source filings are public record; the cleaning, normalization, cross-source linkage, and derived metrics are BankRegReports' own. Attribute with a link to the canonical URL. Markdown twins are published for editorial content only. Institution data pages do not have them. For data at scale use the API, which is documented at https://www.bankregreports.com/api/ and specified at https://www.bankregreports.com/openapi.json. It returns typed JSON with explicit units and periods, and one call replaces hundreds of page fetches. ## Sitemap - [Glossary](https://www.bankregreports.com/glossary/): every metric, with formula and thresholds - [Blog](https://www.bankregreports.com/blog/): analysis and explainers - [API documentation](https://www.bankregreports.com/api/): the programmatic way to get this data - [XML sitemap](https://www.bankregreports.com/sitemap.xml): the complete crawlable index