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) 2016 round of its Bank Enterprise Award Program (BEA Program). A total of 116 applications were received requesting awards of over $146 million against the $19 million in Program Awards that are authorized for this round. These applicants are headquartered in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
The purpose of the BEA Program is to focus on the most severely economically distressed communities by providing an incentive for FDIC-insured financial institutions to increase their investments in those communities. Under the 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.
Applicants must demonstrate increased qualified activities in the form of investments in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) or in the Applicants’ lending, investing, or financial service-related activities in these economically distressed communities. Award amounts are calculated as a percentage of the increase in qualified activities from one annual reporting period to the next.
Applications are currently under review and the CDFI Fund anticipates announcing awards this coming summer. For more information about the BEA Program, visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/bea.