The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund today invited public comment concerning the annual Community Investment Impact System (Annual CIIS Report) required from Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Community Development Entities (CDEs)  participating in CDFI Fund programs including the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program.  The CIIS report is used to assess: (1) the awardee’s/allocatee’s activities as detailed in its application materials; (2) the awardee’s/allocatee’s approved use of the assistance; (3) the awardee’s/allocatee’s financial condition; (4) the socio-economic characteristics of awardee’s/allocatee’s borrowers/investees, loan and investment terms, repayment status, and community development outcomes; and (5) overall compliance with the terms and conditions of the assistance/allocation agreement entered into by the CDFI Fund and the awardee/allocatee.

Comments are invited on all aspects of the information collections, but commentators may wish to focus particular attention on:

  • The cost for CDFIs and CDEs to operate and maintain the services and systems required to provide the required information;
  • Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected;
  • Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the CDFI Fund’s programs, including whether the information shall have practical utility;
  • The accuracy of the CDFI Fund’s estimate of the burden of the collection of information;
  • Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information including through the use of technology, such as software for internal accounting and geocoding to capture geographic detail while streamlining and aggregating transaction level reporting for upload to CIIS; and,
  • What methods might be used to improve the data quality, internal accounting and efficiency of reporting transactions for serving other targeted populations.

All comments on the Annual CIIS Report must be submitted in writing on or before October 28, 2013.
Click here to read the Federal Register Notice.