Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today announced that four New Mexico community-based lending organizations have been awarded federal funds from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI).

"The funding awarded today will help these New Mexico organizations continue to serve their customers," Bingaman said.

The following organizations were awarded:

·         $1.07 million - ACCION New Mexico: The Albuquerque-based nonprofit microenterprise development organization offers micro loans, small business loans, and technical assistance to small businesses.  ACCION will use $1 million to increase its lending capacity and $72,236 to cover a portion of staff salary, a portion of technology upgrades and postage for marketing materials.

·         $1.05 million – Homewise, Inc. in Santa Fe:  Homewise provides home mortgage loans, counseling, and training to an eight-county target market in Northern New Mexico and will use $1 million as lending capital for its employer-assisted mortgage product and $52,275 to improve outreach capabilities by hiring a part-time outreach coordinator and updating its customer tracking software.

·         $224,596 – New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) in Bernalillo:  NMCC is a nonprofit community development venture capital fund serving the state of New Mexico.  NMCC will use $140,000 of the funding as financing capital and $84,596 to expand technical assistance and to conduct market analysis for potential small equity or near-equity investments.

·         $100,000 – Everyone's Federal Credit Union (EFCU) in Tucumcari:  EFCU provides a variety of services including savings and checking accounts, car loans, and a new payday loan product to three small, rural communities in eastern New Mexico and is a NCUA Low-Income Designated credit union. Funding will be used to upgrade its member processing system, which will improve efficiency and provide members with access to more products and services. The upgrade includes the purchase of new workstations and computers and 13 days of onsite installation and staff training.