The funds for Arkansas are provided through the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.  Southern Development Bancorporation of Arkadelphia is being awarded $1.8 million in equity, which will allow it to acquire additional branches to provide housing, business and consumer lending in the Mississippi Delta region.  

"This grant will be of great assistance in our ongoing work to help rebuild the Delta.  It has been made possible by a number of people, including Senators Lincoln and Pryor, Congressmen Ross and Berry and the U.S. Treasury Department.  It will have a life-changing impact on hundreds of Delta residents.  For this we are most grateful," Phil Baldwin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Development Bancorporation, said. 

South Arkansas Community Development, also of Arkadelphia, serves distressed rural areas of the state.  The $47,014 grant the institution is receiving will be used to develop a capitalization strategy and for loan product development.     

“It is important that we give our rural communities the resources they need for economic development,” Lincoln said.  “These two Arkansas institutions are vital to the communities they serve and provide tremendous assistance to the people who live there.” 

“We must make every effort to provide rural Arkansas all the necessary economic support they need,” Pryor said. “The CDFI Fund is a great start in making that economic progress a reality.”

Ross said, “These grants go a long way in supporting the economically disadvantaged rural communities of the Arkansas Delta.  Providing assistance to these communities is absolutely necessary for creating jobs.” 

Berry said, “The Federal government can and should partner with low income, distressed areas to help create economic growth.  I am pleased we were able to help secure funding through the CDFI Fund to help provide housing, business, and consumer lending in parts of the state that need it so badly.” 

The grants are being awarded to 176 community-based organizations across the country that provide critically needed financial products and services to economically disadvantaged people and communities.  The CDFI Fund’s mission is to expand the capacity of these organizations so that all people throughout the nation have access to affordable financial services.