Added on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 9:59 am to News Articles
Further highlighting New Jersey Community Capital’s commitment to transparency, high standards, and results-oriented community development ventures, the organization’s legacy fund – Community Loan Fund of New Jersey, Inc. (CLF) – was recently awarded a strong rating from CARS™, the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Assessment and Rating System. CARS™ is an independent rating process by expert underwriters in the field that evaluate every aspect of CDFIs, from their fiscal strength to the impact of their work in distressed communities.
The CARS™ rating process was launched in 2004 to establish industry-wide performance standards for community development financial institutions. Today, it serves as a systematic and reliable baseline for potential investors to assess CDFIs and determine whether or not they meet their social objectives and risk parameters. Ratings are based on five years of historical performance and cover a projected three-year period.
CLF’s CARS™ analysis, like all others, was conducted by a team of CDFI underwriting specialists that came on-site to conduct the rigorous evaluation. During the visits, the CARS™ professionals interviewed NJCC board members, management and staff; reviewed the organization’s loan files, risk management systems, and programmatic information; and performed an in-depth review of CLF’s financial positioning and creditworthiness based on CAMEL (Capitalization, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings and Liquidity). The review took a detailed look at how well CLF is achieving its social mission and utilizing resources to benefit its target communities. The exhaustive assessment took several months to complete.
“While CLF has long been a leader in community development financing, the comprehensive CARS™ rating process gave us valuable insight into our positioning in the field,” said Wayne T. Meyer, president of NJCC. “We are applying this information to hone our operating standards and make us even more competitive,” he continued. “I am hopeful that our solid rating will serve as further evidence to our investors that we are putting their resources to the best possible use and, at the same time, are attracting new public and private investors so we can extend our reach into more of New Jersey’s underserved communities.”
For more information on CARS™ , visit http://www.carsratingsystem.net.
