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WASHINGTON, D. C. – The National Bankers Association (NBA) released a statement today in response to yesterday’s announcement that the U.S Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) awarded $5 Billion in New Markets Tax Credits to spur investment in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide.

“The National Bankers Association congratulates its member, The Harbor Bank of Maryland (Harbor Bankshares Corporation), on receiving New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) allocations totaling $50 million. As the only Black-owned awardee, we know this allocation will undoubtedly support efforts to bring financial services to the underserved in the Baltimore community.

We are grateful for the NMTC program’s continued and significant funding of community development projects across the country. Despite these investments, we would be remiss if we did not point out the inherent inequity in allocating credits to date and the need for some long-overdue structural improvements.

While we understand that the program is oversubscribed, we believe that there are several steps that the CDFI Fund can take, without specific authorization from Congress, that would give more Minority Depository Institutions fairer access to NMTC allocations. This issue is of paramount importance to our member banks, and we stand ready to work with the CDFI Fund to address the inequities immediately.”