
CDFIs
Community Development Financial Institutions (“CDFI”) were created under federal law by the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994 to promote economic development in distressed urban and rural communities.
Financial institutions that wish to become CDFIs must meet specified eligibility criteria, such as demonstrating that their primary mission is to promote community development by serving economically distressed people and places. Over the last nearly three decades, CDFIs have grown to become an approximately $222 billion industry in the U.S. In recent years CDFIs have gained significant prominence, owing to the pivotal role they played in supporting communities during the COVID-19 pandemic through, among other things, a special allocation of lending capital in the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act of 2020. While we will not receive capital from those sources, we believe that there is ample opportunity in Tennessee to provide capital in Tennessee communities that CDFIs are intended to serve. At the outset, we expect that our lending activity will be largely focused on Middle Tennessee, but we anticipate potentially making loans from time to time to qualified borrowers in East Tennessee and West Tennessee, as well. To receive certification by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, CDFIs must demonstrate a strong commitment to financial performance and community impact. Based on a 2021 report by the Opportunity Finance Network (“OFN”), the national association for CDFIs, 280 CDFIs who participated in the survey created or maintained over 2,600,000 jobs, started or expanded more than 696,000 businesses, and supported the development or rehabilitation of more than 2,300,000 housing units and more than 13,600 community facility projects. Our active pursuit of this certification is expected to continue over the next twelve months, although our ability to ultimately obtain this certification is not guaranteed.
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