U.S. Treasury Division Awards NYC Bank CheckSpring Top Bank Enterprise Award

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced today that NYC bank CheckSpring Bank was awarded the highest possible Bank Enterprise Award for its support of affordable housing development through small business loans, project investments and commercial real estate loans in the Bronx, Brooklyn, New York, Mount Vernon, and Jamaica, New York. Executives of CheckSpring Bank noted that the Bank is both the smallest New York bank to receive the coveted award, and one of only three banking recipients in all of New York.

”We are thrilled to receive this recognition of our deep commitment to New York’s small businesses and our hardworking neighbors. Investing back into the New York community is central to our mission as a community bank,” said Brian Blake, CheckSpring’s VP and Community Reinvestment Act Officer. The Bronx-based Bank recently announced the upcoming opening of its first expansion branch at 2049 Frederick Douglass Blvd (8th Ave.) at 111th Street in Manhattan. The branch opening will coincide with the change of its name and brand from CheckSpring Bank to Spring Bank.

According to CDFI Fund Director Donna J. Gambrell, “The BEA Program is a strategic tool for community-focused institutions as they partner with private and public interests in search of the best solutions for the neighborhoods they serve.”

The BEA Program awardees were selected after a comprehensive review of 71 applications received by the CDFI Fund from financial institutions across the nation requesting more than $88.5 million in funding under the FY 2012 round.

ABOUT CHECKSPRING BANK
Founded in 2007 to serve New York City’s underbanked, CheckSpring Bank is an FDIC-insured, independently owned community bank headquartered in Bronx County, New York. In December 2012, the Bank’s second branch opens in the Harlem community of Manhattan, coinciding with the commencement of operations under the name Spring Bank. Since its founding, a primary mission of the Bank has been to provide underbanked customers with the products, services and education that enable low-wealth customers to benefit from mainstream banking. CheckSpring Bank is equally committed to stimulating and supporting small business growth through deposit and lending products and services. The Bronx branch has seen a dramatic increase in business customers over the past 14 months alone. The majority of CheckSpring’s lending goes to businesses in the five boroughs, and more than half of all loans go to small businesses. The Bank provides a wide range of innovative deposit and lending services, many with superior rates. CheckSpring’s dedicated SBA loans division is one of the busiest in NYC. In 2011, the Small Business Administration presented CheckSpring with an award “For Excellence in Providing Capital to Small Business.”

ABOUT THE BEA PROGRAM
The BEA Program awards FDIC-insured depository institutions for making investments in the most distressed communities throughout the nation. The awards also help banks and thrifts offset some of their risk and meet capital ratio requirements. The BEA Program is multiplying financial institutions’ impacts and generating greater economic opportunity for those with the least access to financial products and services.

ABOUT THE CDFI FUND
Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $1.7 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through the CDFI Program, the Bank Enterprise Awards program, and the Native American CDFI Assistance program. In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated $33 billion in tax credit authority to community development entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Steven Greene
Sperlingreene PR
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917-656-1837