The Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund announced Tuesday it will delay proposed changes to its certification application to carefully review all public comments. This comes after CUNA, Leagues, credit unions, and joint trades engaged with the Fund and Congress with serious concerns that the proposed changes would inappropriately exclude a significant number of mission-focused credit unions.

“We thank the CDFI Fund for hearing our concerns that the proposed changes would significantly undermine efforts of CDFIs to meet the needs of low-income and distressed communities,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. “We are pleased they are open to making changes to the application in response to the significant feedback the Fund received. However, such drastic policy changes deserve a transparent and open formal rulemaking process, and we look forward to engaging with the CDFI Fund as this process continues.”

The CFDI Fund proposed new guidance in November under the Paperwork Reduction Act, but CUNA called for the changes to go through the standard notice and comment process, as the changes were significant changes in policy.

CUNA met with Congressional committee staff earlier this month, and detailed the concerns in official comments filed with the CDFI Fund in December.

The CDFI Fund’s scheduled pause on certification applications will remain in effect, and the Fund is expected release an updated timeline in the near future.