A total of 55 low income-designated credit unions are set to be awarded nearly $40 million from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
The CDFI Fund has issued new grants and loans to 265 different organizations this year, totaling more than $171 million, $39.4 of which went to credit unions. Since the fund's inception, CUs have received nearly $291 million in grant and loan funding.
The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, which advocates on behalf of low-income consumers to gain greater access to safe and responsible credit union products and services, said it continues to work to increase CDFI Fund investments in the growth and expansion of credit unions in some of this country's lowest-income communities.
"The Federation is pleased that a larger number of credit unions received awards this year,” said Pablo DeFilippi, Federation’s senior vice president of membership and network engagement, in a statement. “We know that credit unions are one of the most effective mechanisms to leverage CDFI capital and to empower [low- and moderate-income] communities by helping transform the lives of low-income residents and small business owners through the use of credit union products and services."
DeFilippi added that the increase in the number of CDFI-certified credit unions this year “bodes well for a future with ever-increasing numbers of credit unions receiving awards to grow membership, deposits and loans. We will continue to work with the Fund to increase the number and size of the awards credit unions receive."
Of those 55 credit unions, the six largest Financial Assistance grants (each of exactly $1,006,905) were awarded to: Centric Federal Credit Union (based in West Monroe, La.; $159 million in assets); CoVantage Credit Union (Antigo, Wis.; $1.4 billion); Hope Federal Credit Union (Jackson, Miss.; $238 million); Local Government Federal Credit Union (Raleigh, N.C.; $1.9 billion); One Detroit Credit Union (Detroit, Mich.; $38 million); and St. Louis Community Credit Union (St. Louis; $264 million).
Hope FCU also received a Healthy Food Financing Initiative Financial Assistance (HFFI) award of $1.5 million.
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The full list of recipients can be found
