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The CDFI Fund awarded $24.3 million to 27 community development banks through its CDFI Program Awards. These banks will invest the awards in distressed communities to support small business lending and promote affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization, and expansion into new geographic markets. “The CDFI banks recognized today by the Treasury Department are economic engines, working to fight poverty and create opportunity in the places that are struggling with growing income inequality,” said Jeannine Jacokes, Chief Executive Officer of the Community Development Bankers Association. “These banks are part of the solution. We need mission-focused banks like these, and more resources to support the communities."
This week, the Consumer Financial Profection Bureau conducted an official comment period on Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which gives federal regulators the authority to collect and disseminate specific information with regard to small business lending from banks and other financial insitutions. As detailed in this Next City article, CDBA "unequivocally supports" the purpose of Section 1071 for its potential to increase financial accountability, but recommends a series of changes and clarifications to reduce the burden of the law's implementation on community development banks.
The CDFI Fund announced $18.6 million in 2016 Bank Enterprise Award grants to mission-focused banks for their service in high poverty communities. This Fund – which yields an enormously high impact with a near-negligible proportion of the federal budget – is under threat in the immediate years to come.