GRAY, Tenn.–Appalachian Community FCU has won a $2-million award as part of the Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance.
The credit union will use the funding to expand services in central Appalachia using virtual teller machines, and said it will leverage the award to provide $17 million in additional loans in its service areas.
The Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance, which are offered in partnership with Prudential, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The Kresge Foundation, seek to improve responsible financial products and services to consumers in disinvested communities. Through investments in five community development financial institutions (CDFIs), the NEXT Awards aim to transform how the underbanked and unbanked in rural, urban, and immigrant communities access capital, according to Wells Fargo. In all, $4 million was awarded to the CDFIs that are eligible to apply.
“The winning CDFIs have demonstrated how technology, strategic partnerships, and new consumer finance products can address the more than 60% of Americans struggling with financial health and a growing number of households across the country who are turning to high-cost financial products and services because they do not have access to responsible ones,” said the organizations that presented the awards. “This year's NEXT Awards recipients are merging fintech with community banking, creating easy-to-use credit and savings products, and employing targeted strategies to impact communities often left out of traditional banking.”