Bill Bynum says the Obama Administration's recent decision touse some funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to helpcommunity development financial institutions was the result of longconsultations with the CDFI industry.

Bynum, CEO of the $122 million Hope Community Credit Union andits sponsor, Enterprise Corporation of the Delta, chaired the U.S.Treasury Department's Community Development Advisory Board in early2009. As part of his work with that committee, he also chaired asubcommittee that looked into how CDFIs could help bring economicrecovery in early 2009. Allocating $1 billion in TARP funds incapital and liquidity to CDFIs to use in their economicallytroubled communities was one of the subcommittee's "main"recommendations that the overall committee accepted and presentedto administration officials, Bynum recounted.

He said that staff from ECD and from other CDFIs andorganizations like the National Federation of Community DevelopmentCredit Unions and Self Help Credit had worked with TreasuryDepartment Staff, representatives from regulators and CDFI expertsto craft the program that the administration eventuallyannounced.