CUNA represented America’s credit unions at Wednesday’s Opportunity Zone Conference at the White House, an event featuring cabinet and other officials, along with state, local, tribal and community leaders. The Opportunity Zone program, created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, encourages individuals and businesses to invest in 8,760 low-income communities designated “Opportunity Zones.”

President Donald Trump spoke at the event, calling Opportunity Zones a “crucial part of new tax law to invest and create jobs in the nation’s most underserved communities.”

Several administration officials also spoke, including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Treasury also released new Opportunity Zone guidance Wednesday designed to provide flexibility for investors and funds that invest in the zones, as well as certainty for stakeholders.