The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund recently released the interim rule for implementation of the CDFI Bond Guarantee program, which was established through Section 1134 of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. The CDFI Bond Guarantee program is a federal credit subsidy program which would allow CDFIs or their designees to issue federally backed bonds and use the proceeds to extend credit to the CDFI industry for community development projects or long-term community investments. Such eligible investments would include the development of small businesses, commercial real estate, housing units, shelters, charter schools, and daycare or healthcare centers, among others. The program would allow Treasury to guarantee up to 10 bonds per year, each at a minimum of $100 million, with a total of up to $1 billion in bonds guaranteed per year. The interim rule describes the requirements and parameters for program implementation and administration, including application eligibility, application review, guarantee approval, eligible uses of bond loan proceeds, reporting and compliance monitoring. The CDFI Fund will accept comments on the interim rule until 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

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