Four Arkansas banks receive federal awards to invest in economically distressed areas

Four Arkansas banks were among the 113 financial institutions that were recipients of $22.8 million in federal awards handed out by the U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday (June 27) to invest in economically distressed communities across the nation.

FBT Bank & Mortgage in Fordyce, FNBC of Ash Flat, Arkadelphia-based Southern Bancorp Bank, and The Bank of Lake Village each received the maximum award amount of $233,387 under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) program. That federal grant fund provides monetary awards to FDIC-insured depository institutions that successfully demonstrate an increase in their investments in mission-driven lenders known as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

This fiscal year, Congress required that at least 10% of the funds awarded by the CDFI Fund be used for activities that serve populations living in so-called “persistent poverty counties” (PPCs), which are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as counties where 20% or more of the population has lived in poverty over the past 30 years.

In the fiscal year 2017 BEA Program funding round, 119 applicants submitted applications requesting $131.7 million in awards. Of the 113 depository institutions awarded, 76 have committed to deploying approximately $3.73 billion, or 16.4% of award dollars, in PPCs exceeding the Congressional mandate.

“These banks have not just increased their lending in economically distressed communities,” said CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan. “They are lending in the most highly distressed communities where at least 30% of the population lives at or below the national poverty level and where the unemployment rate is at least 1.5 times the national average. I applaud their efforts to generate economic activity in some of the most underserved parts of the country.”

To view this year’s BEA award book, click here.