federally designated geographical unit consisting of an urbanized area with a central city of at least 50,000 residents and a regional population of 100,000. Federal banking regulations permit financial institutions doing business within an MSA to use a single master account in dealing with the Federal Reserve for computing reserve requirements, processing checks, and sending electronic fund transfers. Information about Community Reinvestment Act-related lending to local communities, compiled for each MSA, is available from federal banking regulators.
U.S. government classification for a free-standing urban population center with a population in the urban center of at least 50,000 and a total MSA population of 100,000 or more. Buyers in MSAs typically exhibit social and economic homogeneity. MSAs usually border on non-urbanized counties. Peoria, Illinois, and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, are examples.
one or more counties having a population of at least 50,000 (see Table 32). A Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA) is an area with two or more Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA). A CMSA must also include at least 1 million people.
Example: The metropolitan statistical area of Atlanta, Georgia, covers 20 counties and contains over 4.1 million people.
| TABLE 32 | |
| STATISTICALAREA REQUIREMENTS | |
| MSA or PMSA | Minimum Population |
| Level A | 1,000,000 |
| Level B | 250,000 |
| Level C | 100,000 |
| Level D | 50,000 |
