From the Illinois Business Journal
First Bank has invested $250,000 into Justine Petersen’s recently birthed COVID-19 Relief Fund for Small Businesses located in Central and Southern Illinois.
The innovative loan fund is structured as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that allows financial institutions and others to make investments into a fund that would provide deployable capital to businesses impacted by Covid 19.
The capitalized loan fund will deploy small business loans as part of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s COVID-19 relief program for small businesses. Justine Petersen is a Community Development Financial Institution, or CDFI, which partners with DCEO to provide funds that promotes economic revitalization in distressed communities throughout the United States by providing financial assistance and information to community development financial institutions.
The maximum loan size is $50,000, amortized over five years at a fixed 3 percent interest rate.