Treasury seeks comment on revised CDFI certification application

The Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund published a notice (Docket No. CDFI-2026-0200) proposing revisions to the Community Development Financial Institutions Program - Certification Application. The collection carries OMB Control Number 1559-0028, and written comments must be received on or before November 30, 2026.

Proposed changes add questions in the Basic Information section about an applicant's and any affiliate's past administrative proceedings and compliance with other federal award programs. The board and executive-staff demographic subsection will be reduced to two questions on total leadership size. Several race- and ethnicity-based target market categories - African American, Hispanic, Other Pacific Islander, Filipino, and Vietnamese - will be removed, and the Fund will no longer permit any Other Targeted Population type based on borrower race or ethnicity. The accountability requirement tied to board representation will be replaced by measurement through Target Market activity, eliminating the separate Accountability and Native Communities Accountability sections.

The revised collection is estimated to involve 150 respondents annually, each spending about 55 hours, for a total burden of 8,250 hours per year.

The Fund invites comments on the necessity, utility and clarity of the information, on ways to reduce burden, and on specific questions listed in the notice, including the proposed one-year transition for entities affected by the target-market changes and the possibility of moving to an annual submission schedule. Comments may be submitted via regulations.gov under the docket number above, or directed to Shannon McKay, Acting Program Manager, Office of Certification Policy and Evaluation.