(August 25, 2006 - New York, NY)  Eleven CDCUs won awards ranging up to $585,000 from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which announced the winners at a ceremony in Albuquerque, NM today.  The awards, totaling $3,330,389, represent 12.6% of a total of $26,373,877 made available by the CDFI Fund in their 2006 round.

Cliff Rosenthal, Executive Director of the National Federation of CDCUs, congratulated the credit unions for succeeding in a “competition that has become increasingly more strenuous over the years.”  The Fund received 127 applications totaling about $146.7 million for assistance.  “The share received by credit unions is roughly comparable to what our industry has received in previous years, but still way below what we’d like to see.  There are many credit unions out there that would be good candidates,” he added.

Four CDCUs received the maximum amount that the Fund awarded to any applicant ($585,000).  “That ceiling is far lower than in the past,” Rosenthal said.  “It reflects the lower level of appropriations that the Fund has received in recent years.”   For the coming fiscal year, the Senate has called for $55 million, while the House has put out a figure of $40 million.  “We very much want to see the House go along with the Senate’s figure,” he added.

Seven of the 11 awardees were repeat winners.  Among the first-time recipients was ASI FCU, the $300-million CDCU that was hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina less than one year ago. 

Other credit unions that received awards under the CDFI Fund’s Native American CDFI Assistance program were: First Hawaiian Homes FCU (Hoolehua, HI - $78,000) and Molokai Community FCU (Kaunakakai, HI - $380,000)