Credit Unions Apply for CDFI Funding

WASHINGTON – Sixteen percent of the 2003 applications for funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund came from depository financial institutions, including credit unions, according to the Treasury Department. The CDFI Fund received 131 applications totaling $106 million in requested grants, but the agency has only $30 million to spend funding the requests. The applications came from 39 states and the District of Columbia, the Department reported. Ninety-six of the applicants served primarily urban areas, 35 served primarily rural areas, 10 were faith-based. The Arlington, Virginia-based CDFI Coalition, an organization of financial institutions, including credit unions, which rely on the Fund for help noted that the applications far outstripped the available funding and renewed its call to support the Fund in the federal budgeting process.