Bank Enterprise Award Program

The Department of the Treasury is issuing a revised interim rule implementing the Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program administered by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (Fund). The mission of the CDFI Fund is to increase the capacity of financial institutions to provide capital, credit and financial services in underserved markets. Its long-term vision is an America in which all people have access to affordable credit, capital and financial services. The purpose of the BEA Program is to provide an incentive to insured depository institutions to increase their activities in the form of loans, investments, services, and technical assistance, within Distressed Communities and provide financial assistance to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) through grants, stock purchases, loans, deposits, and other forms of financial and technical assistance. This revised interim rule: improves programmatic operating efficiencies; targets program incentives to encourage the provision of investment, credit and financial services in Distressed Communities that demonstrate the most extreme need, to CDFIs that serve such Distressed Communities, and to smaller, less well capitalized CDFIs; reduces applicants' documentary and reporting burdens; clarifies and redefines the requirements of certain Qualified Activities; redefines and adds new categories of Qualified Activities; changes some methodologies for calculating BEA Program awards, including the application of caps to such awards; and simplifies some reporting and documentation requirements.