State Small Business Credit Initiative

What is the State Small Business Credit Initiative?

The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) is a program that was re-funded under the American Rescue Plan Act intended to “fund state, territory, and Tribal government small business credit support and investment programs.” The initial program funded in 2010 was only open to States, but this round included Tribes. The application period has closed and Department of the Treasury is yet to announce the amounts that have been reallocated. Treasury has released the methodology for the technical assistance allocation, learn more here.

Technical Assistance Applications are due March 31, 2023 (Updated 12/5/22)

Click here to read the memo on the latest deadline extension.

How ATNI-EDC is Engaged

ATNI-EDC Regional SSBCI Strategy: ATNI-EDC has formed a regional consortium of 25 Tribes where ATNI-EDC will act as program administrator.

ATNI-EDC as Lender: For Tribes that are standing up their own SSBCI program, ATNI-EDC can be a lender through our CDFI, ATNI Financial Services.

Other Support: If there’s anything else that ATNI-EDC can provide to support your SSBCI strategy, please let us know!

ATNI-EDC Regional Strategy

ATNI-EDC is deploying a regional strategy to support Tribes. We have been working with various consultants to develop the regional strategy to support ATNI Tribal enterprises and Tribal-citizen owned businesses. You can download a presentation summary of the strategy by clicking here.

We will deploy 3 programs:

Loan Participation to support small businesses
Loan participation to support bridge financing for tribal enterprise projects
80% loan guarantee

Advantages of the ATNI-EDC Regional SSBCI Strategy

Little-to-no Admin: ATNI-EDC will be responsible for the application, development of the strategy, deploying the strategy, and managing the relationship with Department of Treasury (including providing reports). At the conclusion of the program (around 10 years), Tribes will have the option of getting their deployed SSBCI funds returned with no restrictions on the funds.
More Dollars to support Regional Tribal Businesses: If you’re vacillating between engaging in the ATNI-EDC strategy and not putting in an application at all, then we encourage the former! That will give us a larger pot of funds to deploy our strategy and support Tribal enterprises and Tribal entrepreneurs in the ATNI Region.
Capital to Your Tribe’s Businesses: It is a high priority for us to ensure that these funds are used to support your Tribe’s Tribal enterprise projects and Tribal citizen entrepreneurs. We will work with you to develop a pipeline of deals and ensure that Capital is available for these purposes.
Offer Lower Interest Rates: We will work with lenders to provide a lower blended interest rate, especially on capital intensive projects. We can do this by keeping our interest rates low and having the participating lender pass along those savings.
Don’t need to Update Your Loan Policies: ATNI-EDC/ FS will need to update its loan policies to deploy the SSBCI Funds as the capital restrictions are just outside of our usual lending activity. We’re doing it for you! So if you have a loan program, you don’t need to change the way you do business.
You’re the lender: If your tribe has a CDFI or offers a credit/ loan program, you can continue to use your underwriting standards on projects and ATNI-EDC can participate using SSBCI Funds or through a loan guarantee, thereby diffusing your risk.
New Relationships: As part of our strategy deployment, ATNI-EDC will build capacity to develop relationships with lenders and Tribal entrepreneurs. We’re happy to share those relationships with you!
Leverage Economies of Scale: Since we will be managing a larger fund, we will have the flexibility to take on larger, more complicated projects.
Arm’s Length Transactions: By sending your allocation through the ATNI-EDC Regional Strategy, you’re able to gain some distance from projects within your community thus avoiding potential or real conflicts of interest. This is a priority for the Department of Treasury.
Regional Footprint: Under the ATNI-EDC strategy, we can deploy funds with the ATNI geographic region. We suspect that one challenge of this program will be developing a strong pipeline of projects and ability to deploy the full allocation. With a larger geographic footprint, there are more opportunities to identify SSBCI projects.