CFBank Mortgage Reviews 2026: Loans, Complaints, OCC Rating

Why CFBank mortgage reviews disagree with each other

Search for CFBank mortgage reviews and you find a few ratings tied to individual loan officers, a short list of borrower comments, and profile pages that repeat a lender’s name and a score. A review written in 2021 describes a different business from one written in 2025, because the bank ran two very different mortgage businesses in four years.

The OCC explains it in its Community Reinvestment Act evaluation of CFBank, dated October 10, 2023. It says CFBank “implemented a national mortgage lending model (direct-to-consumer) in 2018,” that loan rates were advertised “nationwide primarily through Bankrate,” and that “In 2022, the bank exited this lending program and began originating loans through their retail operation.” The bank’s own annual report for 2025 says that “Beginning in 2021, CFBank strategically scaled down its residential mortgage business and exited the direct-to-consumer mortgage business in favor of lending in our regional markets.”

The federal loan file shows the size of that change. CFBank files under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act with its own legal entity identifier (LEI 549300ZGCIDP1G72QO72); the table counts applications and originated loans (action taken 1) in the public files.

“Denied share of decided” is denials divided by originations, approved-but-not-accepted and denials; “withdrawn share” is applications withdrawn by the applicant divided by applications received, both our arithmetic. Applications exclude loans CFBank bought from other lenders (33 in 2024 and 75 in 2025). The 2020 to 2022 totals add up to 11,881 originated loans (our arithmetic), the same number the OCC counts as home mortgage loans originated or purchased for its evaluation.

Three readings of the table:

• The 2020 peak was a refinance machine. Of the 6,332 loans in 2020, 6,082 were refinances or cash-out refinances, 96.0% (our arithmetic), at a median note rate of 2.999%. It does not describe the bank now.
• The national footprint is gone. In 2025 the bank originated loans in 18 states and 132 of 187 were in Ohio; the next states were Kentucky and Indiana with 9 each. Its website still says CFBank provides mortgage lending “nationwide”, and eligibility may be wider than where it actually closes loans, but the loans it recorded are regional.
• More applicants walk away. Withdrawn applications rose from 26.2% of applications in 2021 to 45.2% in 2025 (our arithmetic). HMDA does not say why an applicant withdraws, and a high rate can come from shopping several lenders as easily as from a problem. It is the metric to ask CFBank about.

Who CFBank lends to now: 2023 to 2025

In 2025, 113 of the 187 loans were home purchases (60.4%, our arithmetic), 63 were refinances or cash-out refinances, 53 were on investment properties and 17 were FHA, VA or USDA loans. The bank sold 138 of the 187 loans within the year and kept 49; in 2023 it sold only 36 of 205. The bank’s annual report says single-family loans it sells are underwritten to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae guidelines or to an investor’s own rules.

The 2025 file marks the note rate, term, loan costs and rate spread of all 187 loans as “Exempt”, which is why there is no 2025 price line below. The 2023 and 2024 files are complete. Dollar totals also hide a few large commercial-sized loans: the 12 investment-property loans on 5 or more units in 2025 account for $67.3 million of the $119.8 million (our arithmetic), so the medians above say more about a typical borrower than the total does.

What a borrower paid: the HMDA price fields

HMDA reports, for owner-occupied first-lien loans, the rate spread (the loan’s APR minus the average prime offer rate for a comparable loan; a negative number means below the benchmark) and the total loan costs in dollars. These are the closest public price data there is for a lender that does not publish a rate sheet.

Read the swing, not the decimals. In 2020 CFBank’s typical owner-occupied loan priced 0.167 points below the benchmark with about $1,550 in costs; in 2024 it priced 0.162 points above it with about $3,293 in costs, 2.1 times the 2020 figure (our arithmetic). Two cautions: the 2023 and 2024 medians rest on 101 and 130 loans, and the 2020 loans were mostly refinances while 2024 had more purchases, which usually cost more. This is not a quote for your loan; get a written Loan Estimate.

Complaints: what the CFPB database shows

On October 19, 2026 we searched the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, all fields, for “CFBank”, “cfbank”, “CF Bank”, “CF Bankshares” and “Central Federal”. Each search returned 0 complaints. A control search for “Huntington” returned 9,632, so the search works. The same search for “Kiavi” returned 25 and for “Quontic” returned 0.

Zero is a finding with limits. The database shows only complaints submitted to the CFPB and sent to the company; a borrower may instead complain to the OCC, to a state regulator, to a loan officer’s manager or on a review site, and none of that appears here. We also cannot say why a bank with 6,332 loans in one year shows no entry. Treat it as “no federal complaint record under this name” and not as proof that no borrower was unhappy. For the same reason the review-site comments are worth reading but not counting: they are few, self-selected, and many are about a single loan officer.

The regulator’s rating: Needs to Improve

The Community Reinvestment Act asks the OCC to grade how a national bank serves its local communities. For CFBank’s evaluation (covering 2020 through 2022, public disclosure dated October 10, 2023) the OCC wrote: “This institution is rated Needs to Improve.” The lending test is Needs to Improve and the community development test is Satisfactory. Among the major factors, the OCC lists that “The bank exhibits a poor distribution of home mortgage loans to individuals of different income levels in its assessment areas (AAs)” and that “A substantial majority of the bank’s loans are outside its AAs.”

This is a rating about where the old national volume went, not about how a borrower is treated. The same document says: “The OCC has not identified that this institution has engaged in discriminatory or other illegal credit practices that require consideration in this evaluation.” CF Bankshares’ 2025 annual report says the rating “was primarily attributable to CFBank’s legacy direct-to-consumer residential mortgage business,” that it remains, that the company is subject to additional conditions on activities such as acquisitions, and that the next evaluation is expected to start in 2026. We have not found a newer OCC evaluation, so a better rating would be news.

Our CFBank DSCR review of May 17, 2026 said the full 2023 evaluation could not be downloaded and assumed the rating was still “Satisfactory.” The evaluation itself says Needs to Improve.

The bank behind the mortgages

CFBank is an OCC-regulated national bank with FDIC certificate 28263, established January 1, 1892, with $2.17 billion in assets, $1.83 billion in deposits and 7 domestic offices at June 30, 2026 in the FDIC BankFind record. Its parent, CF Bankshares Inc. (CIK 1070680), reports to the SEC. What the filings say about mortgages:

The mortgage business is small next to the commercial bank: commercial, commercial real estate and multi-family loans were 72.1% of the loan book at the end of 2025. In its July 28, 2026 results release, management said: “Expansion of our Residential Mortgage salable loan volumes and business is on a trajectory which is likely to provide added Fee income contribution during the second half of the year.” That is the company’s forecast, not a result; the third-quarter report will show whether it came true, and last year’s came on November 3, 2025. The 10-K also says that “Because of CFBank’s concentration of business activities in Ohio,” results depend on Ohio’s economy.

Is this the same as the CFBank DSCR loan?

No. The DSCR loan for rental properties is advertised on CFBank’s website with a minimum DSCR of 0.75, a 660 minimum FICO, up to 80% loan-to-value on purchases and loans up to $2.5 million (site read October 19, 2026). HMDA does not label DSCR loans. What it does show is small: 41 investment-property loans on 1-4 units in 2025, $10.1 million, in 8 states, 31 of them in Ohio, and 35 in 2024. Business-purpose loans are only partly reported in HMDA (the 2025 file marks the business-purpose field “Exempt”), so the true DSCR volume may be higher. For that product see our CFBank DSCR loan review, and for how it compares see best DSCR loan lenders 2026.

What you can do with this

• Ask which CFBank loan officer and which program you are being offered, and get a Loan Estimate in writing before you pay for an appraisal. The 2024 HMDA median rate spread was above the benchmark; your quote may differ.
• Compare at least two other lenders on the same day. Ask each lender for rate, points, lender credits and total loan costs.
• Ask about timing. 45.2% of 2025 applications were withdrawn. Ask how long CFBank takes from application to clear to close on a loan like yours, and whether the loan will be sold or kept.
• Check the lender’s licence yourself. CFBank’s website footer shows NMLS number 409132; confirm it on NMLS Consumer Access.
• If you are an investor buying a rental, compare CFBank’s published DSCR terms with other lenders before you apply; CFBank’s recorded investor lending is small and mostly in Ohio.

For checks that work on any lender, read is this DSCR lender legit?; for rates see DSCR loan rates 2026.

FAQ

Sources, read October 19, 2026: FFIEC HMDA loan-level records and filer lists for 2018 to 2025 (CFPB Data Browser, LEI 549300ZGCIDP1G72QO72), tabulated by us; the OCC Community Reinvestment Act Performance Evaluation of CFBank, National Association dated October 10, 2023 (charter 25137) and the evaluation of 2020; CF Bankshares Inc.’s Form 10-K for 2025, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and Form 8-K of July 28, 2026; the FDIC BankFind record for certificate 28263; the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database search API; CFBank’s website pages for home loans and DSCR. This is analysis of public records, not investment, legal, lending or tax advice. We have no commercial relationship with CFBank; Kiavi is a paid link.