NEW YORK — The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions has cheered the increase in appropriations for the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, noting that this is the first time in recent years that the Fund has not had to fight for minimal allocations.

“We are gratified and excited about this increase, which responds to the advocacy of the CDFI Coalition,” said Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal. The Federation sits on the board of the coalition, which it helped to organize more than a decade ago. “We've fought a defensive battle for years, and this increase will bring us much closer to the level of funding of some years ago.”

The Federation also noted that the increased funding coincides with an increase in applications to the Fund from CDFIs, including credit unions. Rosenthal observed that it appeared that 36 CUs this year had applied for help, up from the 22 which had applied for the last round.

The Federation reported that 11 credit unions had applied for “Small and Emerging CDFI Assistance, 15 for the larger, Category II or “Core” assistance and 10 credit unions (18.2%) had applied for technical assistance only.