The TAF was designed to inject emergency short-term funds into all depository institutions, both large and small. We examine the evolution of the Federal Reserve’s design of the Term Auction Facility (TAF), and document and describe both community and non-community FDIC insured banks usage of the facility. Our research suggests that certain aspects of the structure of the TAF were changed by the Federal Reserve, which enhanced the ability of community banks to access funds from the facility over time. However, we find that community banks were far less likely than larger, non-community banks to use the TAF as a source of funding during the financial crisis, especially in the early stages of the financial crisis.