CDFI Fund director stepping down

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Jodie Harris will step down as director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund at the  end of April, according to a post Thursday on the fund's website.

Harris, who was appointed to the position during the Trump administration, oversaw an effort opposed by banks that would have revisited its proposed new criteria for participation in the CDFI Fund. 

Banks lobbied against the effort to create new criteria for using the fund, which some advocates had argued was being used by for-profit companies as a way to raise new capital. Banks said that they "strongly believe that the proposed changes will significantly undermine the efforts of CDFIs to meet the needs of borrowers in low-income and distressed communities," and that the process by which the fund sought to make the changes "did not allow for sufficient consideration of stakeholder feedback." 

"This new application and guidance will not simply flush out a few "bad apples,'" the Independent Community Bankers of America, American Bankers Association, Community Development Bankers Association and other groups said in a letter to lawmakers. "Mission-focused CDFIs with long track records of impact and quality service to low-income communities will be forced to make a painful choice. Some will forgo CDFI certification and access to the CDFI Fund's resources but continue to serve their communities, while others will maintain their CDFI certification at the expense of reductions in service and access to capital for CDFI Target Markets. We do not believe these choices should be inevitable, or forced by the CDFI Fund." 

Harris said she will leave her position to serve as president of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. Current Deputy Director of Policy and Programs Marcia Sigal will serve as acting director of the fund beginning in May.