Headline: Oakland’s Community Bank of the Bay wins $500,000 award

Publication: Press Release

Dateline: August 7, 2006

Oakland’s Community Bank of the Bay wins $500,000 award


OAKLAND, Calif. (Aug. 7, 2006) – Community Bank of the Bay (CBYAA.OB) has been notified it will receive a  $500,000 cash award from the United States Treasury Department under the Bank Enterprise Award Program.

The award recognizes the bank’s lending program in all underserved communities. Most of them have been in Oakland.

The BEA Program was created by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund to encourage financial institutions to “provide critically needed financial products and services to economically disadvantaged people and communities.”

Community Bank is one of 47 institutions nationwide that will share $12 million in grants, and one of just 18 that received the maximum $500,000 allowed. It is one of only three California banks to receive awards, and the only California bank to receive the maximum amount.

A separate news release issued by the CDFI Fund said Community Bank was one of 33 institutions recognized for providing a total of $380 million in loans or investments in distressed communities nationwide.

Announcing the awards, Arthur A. Garcia, Director of the CDFI Fund, said, "By encouraging the development of partnerships between banks and CDFI’s, and by providing residents of low-income communities needed financial services, we are achieving the Fund's vision of an America in which all people have adequate access to affordable credit, capital and financial services."

CDFI uses the BEA awards to recognize the key role played by institutions like Community Bank “in promoting community revitalization through the provision of essential financial services, credit, and investment capital,” Garcia said.

Much of the money used to fund these loans comes from the Oakland 1st Fund, an innovative approach created by Community Bank of the Bay. All funds deposited into the Oakland 1st Fund are guaranteed to be used solely in Oakland. This has grown well beyond expectations and now tops $23 million.

The announcement of the award was the second very significant piece of good news Community Bank received last week. Tuesday it was notified by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that because of the bank’s exemplary performance, all restrictions that had previously been imposed on the bank as it tried to work its way out of past problems have now been lifted.

“This is turning out to be a pretty darn good week,” Garrett said.


For information about this year’s BEA awards, see http://www.cdfifund.gov/news_events/press.asp