Over $428 Million in Increased Investments, Lending and Services in Highly Distressed Communities and to CDFIs
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced today the application data for the fiscal year (FY) 2019 round of its Bank Enterprise Award Program (BEA Program). A total of 117 applications were received requesting awards of over $150 million. A total of $25 million is available for this round. BEA Program applicants are headquartered in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
The BEA Program provides an incentive for FDIC-insured financial institutions to increase lending, investments, and financial services (qualified activities) in the most severely economically distressed communities. Under the BEA Program, distressed communities are defined as census tracts where at least 30 percent of residents have incomes that are less than the national poverty level and where the unemployment rate is at least 1.5 times the national unemployment rate.
The BEA Program requires applicants to demonstrate an increase in qualified activities from one annual reporting period—known as the “baseline period”— to the next—known as the “assessment period”. BEA qualified activities are provided to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) or residents and businesses located in these economically distressed communities. Award amounts are calculated as a percentage of the increase in qualified activities. During the one-year assessment period (January 1, 2018 – December 31, 2018), these 117 applicants collectively reported qualified activities totaling more than $1.6 billion. Based on those reported qualified activities, applicants demonstrated an increase of $428.7 million in lending, investment and financial services in CDFIs and severely economically distressed communities as follows:
- Loans and investments in distressed communities of over $366.1 million;
- Provision of financial services in distressed communities of $36.1 million; and
- Loans, deposits and technical assistance to CDFIs of $26.5 million.
In addition, of the 117 applicants, 86 have made commitments to deploy a portion of their award in Persistent Poverty Counties (PPCs). PPCs are counties where 20 percent or more of the population has lived in poverty over the past 30 years, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Applications are currently under review and the CDFI Fund anticipates announcing awards in September 2019.
For more information about the BEA Program, please view the program Fact Sheet or visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/bea.