Coastal Enterprises, Inc. Joins FHLB Boston

BOSTON, Jan. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston announced that Coastal Enterprises, Inc., a Maine-based nonprofit, became the Bank's first community financial development institution member. CEI provides funding to create affordable housing and support micro-, small, and medium enterprises and value-added processing in natural resource industries and community facilities, such as health and child care, in Maine, New England, and beyond.

"It is an honor for us to become FHLB Boston's first CDFI member," said Ron Phillips, CEI's president and chief executive officer. "Membership gives us access to reliable, low-cost funding to expand our lending capacity and further our mission of achieving social and economic justice within sustainable communities."

Edward A. Hjerpe III, the Bank's president and chief executive officer, added, "We are pleased to welcome CEI as the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston's first non-depository CDFI member, stockholder, and customer. We look forward to providing credit products and services to CEI, as we do for all members, increasing the availability of credit to communities throughout New England."

In 2010, the Federal Housing Finance Agency implemented provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that permitted qualifying CDFIs to become members of a Federal Home Loan Bank. CDFIs are private nonprofit and for-profit financial institutions that supply financial services to encourage economic development and community revitalization in low-income communities. Eligible institutions include privately insured, state-chartered credit unions, community development loan funds, and venture capital funds that are certified by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

As a member of the Bank, CEI will have access to short- and long-term credit to meet funding needs, reduce financing costs, manage liquidity, and help mitigate interest-rate risk. CEI will also be able to participate in the Bank's Affordable Housing Program, which awarded more than $14 million in grants to qualifying affordable housing development projects in 2012.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston provides highly reliable wholesale funding and liquidity to more than 450 member financial institutions in New England. The Bank delivers competitively priced financial products, services, and expertise that support housing finance and community economic growth, including programs targeted to lower-income households.

About Coastal Enterprises, Inc.
Since 1977, CEI has created economic opportunity for low-income people, primarily in rural regions and small towns in Maine. CEI has provided over $817 million in financing to 2,245 enterprises leveraging over $2.4 billion for micro, small and medium enterprises, value-added processing in natural resource industries of farms, fish and forests, and community facilities; and, affordable housing projects that provide income, employment and ownership opportunities to low-income people and communities. CEI's mission is to create economically and environmentally healthy communities in which all people, especially those with low incomes, can reach their full potential.   

CONTACT: Mark S. Zelermyer
617-292-9750
[email protected]

Grace Cleaves
207-632-7693
[email protected]

SOURCE Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston