Two local banks are among 113 financial institutions receiving $22.8 million in federal awards handed out by the U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday to invest in economically distressed communities across the nation.
Talk Business Arkansas reports FNBC of Ash Flat received the maximum award amount of $233,387, while Century Bank of the Ozarks in Gainesville received $46,661 under the U.S. Treasury Departments Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) program. The federal grant fund provides monetary awards to FDIC-insured depository institutions that successfully demonstrate an increase in their investments in mission-driven lenders known as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).
This fiscal year, Congress required at least 10 percent of the funds awarded by the CDFI Fund be used for activities serving populations living in so-called persistent poverty counties (PPCs), which are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as counties where 20 percent or more of the population has lived in poverty over the past 30 years.
In the fiscal year 2017 BEA Program funding round, 119 applicants submitted applications requesting $131.7 million in awards. Of the 113 depository institutions awarded, 76 have committed to deploying approximately $3.73 billion, or 16.4 percent of award dollars, in PPCs exceeding the Congressional mandate.
CDFE Fund Director Annie Donavon says these banks have not just increased their lending in economically distressed communities. They are lending in the most highly distressed communities where at least 30 percent of the population lives at or below the national poverty level and where the unemployment rate is at least 1.5 times the national average.
This years BEA award book can be viewed at bank awards.
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