Carver Receives $30 Million In New Markets Tax Credits

Carver State Bank, Main Office, 701 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
Carver State Bank, Main Office, 701 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd

On February 13, Carver State Bank and its partner, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE), was awarded $30 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund through Carver Financial Corporation, the bank’s holding company. This is the first time any NMTCs have been awarded an entity in Georgia outside of Atlanta. Additionally, Carver is the first community bank in Georgia to receive an allocation of NMTCs from the Treasury.

The NMTC Program helps attract private capital into low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making equity investments for projects in economically distressed communities. The credit that the investors receive totals 39 percent of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.

“As a Minority Depository Institution and a CDFI located outside of Atlanta, we are excited to receive this award from the CDFI Fund that will enable us to work alongside Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs to bring much needed flexible financial products to the disadvantaged communities and businesses across Georgia,” said Carver State Bank President Robert E. James, Sr. Grace Fricks, President and CEO of Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs said, “We are honored by the CDFI Fund’s support and excited about the opportunity to work with Carver Financial Corporation and to bring this important capital resource to low-income, minority, and rural commu- nities in our state.” ACE is a CDFI specializing in small business lending and business advisory services to low-income, minority, and women entrepreneurs in Appalachia (northern GA) and Greater Atlanta.

Carver State Bank, founded in 1927, is the oldest bank headquarters in the Savannah area; the only bank headquartered in Savannah that has an OUTSTANDING Community Reinvestment Act Rating from FDIC; and the only bank in the area that is certified by the United States Treasury Department as a Community Development Financial Institution. Of nearly 5,000 commercial banks in the United States, only 23 of these institutions are owned by African Americans. Most of the other banks that are owned by African Americans are located in much larger metropolitan areas. An equal opportunity provider, Carver is a member of the National Bankers Association, the Community Development Bankers Association, and Georgia Bankers Association.

Since its inception in 2001, the NMTC program has contributed more than $44.4 billion to projects across the United States.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.