Ponce Bank receives approval for an award of approximately $0.5 million as part of the CDFI Bank Enterprise Award Program and received the previously announced $3.7 million in cash that was granted as part of CDFI Equitable Recovery Program

NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ponce Financial Group, Inc., (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: PDLB), the holding company for Ponce Bank (the “Bank”), today announced that the Bank received approval for a grant in the amount of $451,025 as part of the Bank Enterprise Award Program from the Community Development Financial Institutions ("CDFI"). Awards under the Bank Enterprise Award Program are subject to the program terms and must be used for qualified activities, which include providing loans, investments and financial services to residents and businesses in distressed communities.

The Bank also announced today that it has received the previously announced $3.7 million in cash that was granted from the U.S. Treasury as part of the Community Development Financial Institutions ("CDFI") Equitable Recovery Program ("ERP") which aims to help CDFI's further their mission of helping low and low-to-moderate income communities recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ERP grant must be used for eligible activities and the Company must provide reporting in accordance with the ERP requirements.

“There’s been a lot of talk lately about which banks are “systemically important” and I think that one just needs to read the purpose of this ERP program to understand that CDFIs like Ponce Bank are critical to a huge swath of our society that isn’t supported by the traditional banking system” said Ponce Bank CEO Carlos Naudon. He added “We proved throughout the pandemic that Community Banks, CDFIs and MDIs are able to strategically deploy capital, where it’s needed most, both quickly and efficiently. If that’s not systemically important then I’m not sure I understand the term.”

Ponce Bank has a long history of service to low and low-to-moderate income communities that these funds are targeted to support. The Bank was founded in the Bronx in 1960 at a time when most financial institutions had fled the neighborhoods and has grown to serve immigrant communities throughout the greater New York City area with 13 branches and 6 mortgage loan offices in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Bergenfield and Union City, NJ.

About Ponce Financial Group, Inc.

Ponce Financial Group, Inc., is the holding company for Ponce Bank. Ponce Bank is a Minority Depository Institution, a Community Development Financial Institution, and a certified Small Business Administration lender. Ponce Bank’s business primarily consists of taking deposits from the general public and to a lesser extent alternative funding sources and investing those funds, together with funds generated from operations and borrowings, in mortgage loans, consisting of 1-4 family residences (investor-owned and owner-occupied), multifamily residences, nonresidential properties, construction and land, and, to a lesser extent, in business and consumer loans. Ponce Bank also invests in securities, which consist of U.S. Government and federal agency securities and securities issued by government-sponsored or government-owned enterprises, as well as, mortgage-backed securities, corporate bonds and obligations, and Federal Home Loan Bank stock.