The Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund’s Community Development Advisory Board (CDAB) met Monday, and its CDFI Certification Subcommittee provided several recommendations to the application process echoing credit union concerns and recommendations. CUNA and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions submitted a written statement in the weeks prior to the meeting outlining technical recommendations.
The CDFI Fund has paused applications while it finalized a new Certification Application.
The subcommittee highlighted many of the issues raised by the organizations during its Monday meeting, including:
CDAB members also echoed CUNA’s praise of the CDFI Fund’s efforts to ensure that the CDFI designation remains meaningful and reflective of the Fund’s mission. Several CDAB members also shared concerns that the proposed changes—as written—would have unintended consequences, such as negative impacts on Native and rural CDFIs, and that the lack of flexibility could create barriers to innovation to serve the underserved.