CDFI Finance in Practice: Certification, Capital Sources, and Lending Structures

This CLE webinar will examine the regulatory landscape for community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and will provide attendees with a clear framework for identifying compliance and structuring issues early, along with practical drafting guidance informed by transactions in the field. Designed for transactional attorneys who represent lenders, borrowers, and investors, as well as nonprofit organizations and public agencies involved in community development finance matters. This program will also be of interest to in-house counsel at financial institutions and mission-driven lenders, along with real estate finance professionals and developers.

CDFIs have become central players in U.S. community development finance, deploying billions of dollars into affordable housing, small businesses, community facilities, and, increasingly, clean energy projects in low-income and underserved markets. Certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund, these mission-driven lenders occupy a distinctive legal position: they are private financial institutions operating within a federal certification framework and funded through a layered mix of federal awards, bank investments influenced by the Community Reinvestment Act, philanthropic capital, and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund dollars distributed through national intermediaries. Attorneys encountering CDFIs as clients, counterparties, or capital sources need a working command of this framework to structure and close transactions effectively.

This program provides a practical introduction to the CDFI ecosystem and the legal issues that recur across CDFI transactions. Topics will include CDFI certification requirements and the CDFI Fund's revised certification standards. Review principal sources of CDFI capital and the compliance obligations associated with each, including federal award terms, flow-down requirements, and program-specific conditions with analysis and perspectives from in-house counsel and their outside counsel. The session will also address loan products and structures CDFIs commonly deploy, including predevelopment and bridge loans and construction-to-permanent facilities.

Examine how CDFI financing is layered with other subsidies and tax credit programs, including the low-income housing tax credit, new markets tax credit, and clean energy investment tax credit, with our esteemed faculty. The panel will conclude with a discussion on the intercreditor, subordination, and regulatory issues that arise when mission-driven and conventional capital come together in a single capital stack.

Listen as this authoritative panel of in-house and law firm presenters outlines common legal issues found in CDFI transactions; certification requirements; capital sources and compliance obligations; intercreditor and subordination considerations; other capital stack issues; and more.