U.S. Department of Treasury Recertifies Ponce Bank as a Community Development Financial Institution

NEW YORK, May 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ponce Financial Group, Inc., (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: PDLB), the holding company for Ponce Bank (the “Bank”), today announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) officially recertified the Bank as a Community Development Financial Institution (“CDFI”) on May 19, 2023. This recertification validates and empowers the Bank’s mission to support Low and Moderate-Income communities and communities of color in and around New York City as well as a national commitment to support Hispanic, African-American, and Low-Income communities throughout the U.S.

“As a mission driven bank since the Bank was founded in 1960, we have always maintained our commitment in playing a role in changing the lives of our underserved customers and communities by giving them access to vital banking products and services. We represent one of only 33 banks in the country that have earned both the CDFI and Minority Depository Institution ("MDI") designations,” said the Company’s President and CEO Carlos Naudon. He went on to add, “As a CDFI and an MDI, we are a small portion of the US banking system, but we play a big role in the communities that we serve by improving access to banking services and helping support the lives and well-being of our customers and the communities that we have been serving for over 60 years.”

CDFI certification provides access to numerous grants, programs, and funding sources designed to provide impact on these underserved communities and is consequently a critical strategic milestone for the Bank. The recertification recognizes the unique role of such institutions, seeing that targeted funds are deployed equitably and for the benefit of all those whose lives and livelihoods they are intended to support.

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.