ByALLISSA KLINE
akline@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1612

The largest bank in Buffalo received top honors once again from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the way it addresses the credit needs of the communities in which it operates.

M&T Bank announced Tuesday that it received an "outstanding" Community Reinvestment Act rating from the Federal Reserve. The rating is based on a review that highlighted 456 community-development loans made by M&T during a two-year assessment period. The loans totaled more than $2.3 billion, up from $1.9 billion during the previous two-year period, the bank said.

This is the 29th consecutive year the bank earned the "outstanding" rating, the highest possible from the agency following the federal Community Reinvestment Act exam. In general, the exam measures several factors: the depth of a bank's community development lending, the distribution of small business and home mortgage loans within the bank's footprint, the accessibility of bank branches and services, and the bank's commitment to offering community-development services.

The latest rating covers M&T's community reinvestment performance through Dec. 31, 2009. The bank currently operates in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Ontario. It has $78 billion in assets and more than 770 retail and commercial branches.