Eligibility Criteria as a Loan Fund

Eligibility Criteria as a Loan Fund. For an entity to be eligible to participate in the SBLF as a loan fund, they must meet the following criteria: • The loan fund must be a non-depository CDFI-certified loan fund headquartered in Mississippi; • The loan fund must demonstrate a strong pipeline of prospective deals with small businesses and startups in Mississippi; • The loan fund must show a one-to-one match of committed funds for the total loan amount applied for; o This match must be at the CDFI Fund level. Securing a one-to-one match from other sources of funding for each individual transaction using SBLF funds will not meet this initial requirement. Matching funds must come from “private financing” in accordance with SSBCI definitions. • The loan fund must demonstrate the operational capacity to meet all compliance requirements for participating in the program; • The loan fund must have a strong track record of serving socially and economically distressed individuals (SEDI) businesses and organizations as defined in United States Treasury guidelines; • The loan fund must submit audited financial statements for its past three (3) fiscal years and agree to continue to submit annual audited financial statements; and • The loan fund must be prepared to be fully responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and deploying the capital applied for into startups and small businesses. Additionally, participating CDFI Loan Funds (“participants”) are expected to pursue, above the one-to-one match at the fund level, a ten (10) to one (1) leverage overall from private financing. The additional leverage can be at the transaction level as well as recycling the use of funds by reinvesting returned capital. •