SIC code for banking: 6021, 6022 and the NAICS codes for banks

This page is for anyone who needs the right code for a bank: a bank filling in a vendor or government form, an analyst screening EDGAR, or a seller building a list of banks or credit unions. It gives the SIC and NAICS codes, how to choose by charter, and how many institutions sit behind each code.

SIC codes for banks

The NAICS equivalents come from the Census Bureau's SIC to NAICS concordance. SIC hasn't been revised since 1987, but it's still how SEC EDGAR and many data providers tag banks.

How to choose the right code

The charter decides it, and you can look it up: the FDIC's BankFind shows every insured institution's charter class. The FDIC's classes map onto SIC like this:

Two cases trip people up. A bank holding company that only holds bank shares is 6712 in SIC and 551111, Offices of Bank Holding Companies, in NAICS; but the Census definition of 551111 sends holding companies that also operate their banks to Industry Group 5221, Depository Credit Intermediation. And an investment bank isn't a bank code at all: underwriting and securities dealing are SIC 6211 and NAICS 523150, Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation.

The NAICS codes for banks

For the payments side of banking, 522320 covers transaction processing and clearinghouses, and 522390 check cashing, money transmission and loan servicing.

How many banks there are

The FDIC and the Census Bureau count different things. The FDIC counts institutions (each bank charter once). County Business Patterns counts establishments, so every branch with paid staff is one more.

That's about 22 commercial banking establishments for every commercial bank charter (82,989 against 3,735; our calculation, mixing a 2023 count with a 2026 one). The typical establishment is a branch: 42.9% of commercial banking establishments have 5 to 9 employees, and 24.6% fewer than five, while 1,735 have 100 or more. California has the most (7,361), then Texas (6,553), Florida (4,896), New York (4,087) and Illinois (3,843).

CBP 2023 is classified on NAICS 2017, so 522180 is the sum of its two 2017 predecessors, as above, and CBP publishes no size split for it.

SBA size standards

For 522110, 522130, 522180 and 522210, the SBA's standard is $850 million in assets, not receipts (Table of Size Standards effective March 17, 2023; 13 CFR 121.201 on the eCFR shows no later change). Assets are averaged over the four quarterly financial statements for the preceding year, using the FFIEC 041 call report for banks and the NCUA 5300 call report for credit unions, and affiliates count. Bank holding companies (551111) use $38.5 million in average annual receipts, and investment banks (523150) $47.0 million.

As a rough guide, 3,020 of the 4,217 FDIC institutions reported total assets of $850 million or less at 30 June 2026 (one quarter only, before counting affiliates such as other banks under the same holding company).

Where bank codes are used

• EDGAR and investment research. EDGAR assigns each filer an SIC code, and screens and data vendors often start from it. The SEC's list has no 6712, so listed bank holding companies file under bank codes: JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America under 6021, State Street and BNY Mellon under 6022.
• Vendor and government forms. Banks registering as suppliers, or applying for programs, give 522110 (or 522180 or 522130) as their NAICS code.
• Lists for selling to banks. Fintech, compliance and core banking vendors filter by code, charter and asset size. Asset size usually matters more than code.

Finding banks by code

For a complete list, skip SIC and start from the regulators. FDIC BankFind lists every insured bank and savings institution with its charter class, headquarters, total assets and branches, and can be downloaded; the NCUA publishes the equivalent data for credit unions. EDGAR covers the listed holding companies under SIC 6021 and SIC 6022.

The largest US banks by assets, from FDIC data for 30 June 2026:

The bank's FDIC headquarters can differ from the parent's: Citigroup's EDGAR address is New York, but the FDIC lists Citibank in Sioux Falls. For who buys inside a bank and how to reach them, see the list of banks guide.

Worked example: why a SIC list misses banks

Illustrative example. The vendor and Lakeshore are invented; the counts are FDIC data for 30 June 2026.

A compliance software vendor wants every bank with $1 billion to $10 billion in assets in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. FDIC data returns 142 institutions: Illinois 50, Wisconsin 30, Ohio 28, Michigan 18 and Indiana 16.

1. By charter, they split into 57 state nonmember banks, 45 national banks, 27 state member banks, 12 savings institutions and 1 insured foreign branch.
2. A SIC 6021 list would find 45 of the 142. Adding 6022 brings it to 129. The other 13 sit under 6035, 6036 and 6081.
3. So build the list from FDIC data, filtered on assets and state, and use the codes only to label each bank. At volume, a Bebop search can take the same brief ("community banks with $1 billion to $10 billion in assets in the Midwest, with a chief compliance officer") and return the banks and people with the reason each fits.
4. Label each account. Working through the list, the rep finds Lakeshore State Bank (lakeshore.example), a state nonmember bank owned by Lakeshore Bancorp. The bank is SIC 6022 and NAICS 522110; the holding company, if it only holds the bank's shares, is 551111.

Next step: read the list of banks guide for who buys at banks of each size and how to reach them.