Community Loan Center expands service area

The Community Loan Center of Northeast Indiana, operated by Brightpoint Development Fund, was recently approved to expand its service area from 17 to 27 counties.

A Community Loan Center (CLC) offers affordable, small dollar loans as a benefit to employees whose employers are enrolled in the program. Indiana has four CLCs which serve residents across the state.

Current Indiana law allows lenders to issue loans with an Annual Percentage Rate as high as 391 percent. In 2021, high-cost loans from payday lenders cost Hoosier borrowers $29.2 million in finance charges. Brightpoint Development Fund sought an expansion for its CLC program because of the growing need for an alternative to payday lending.

“Had each of our CLC clients taken out a payday loan and renewed it over a 12-month period, it would have cost them an additional $1,500 in fees in 2023,” says Vice President of Community and Economic Development Matt Crouch. “In our community, borrowers saved an estimated $1.7 million by accessing the Community Loan Center of Northeast Indiana.”

With the recent expansion, the CLC of Northeast Indiana has added Blackford, Delaware, Fayette, Henry, Jay, Marion, Randolph, Rush, Wayne, and Union counties to its current footprint which includes Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Elkhart, Fulton, Grant, Huntington, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Marshall, Miami, Noble, St. Joseph, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties.

In addition to offering consumer loans, Brightpoint Development Fund also offers affordable business loans, financial education, and housing development services and is a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) micro lender and a U.S. Department of the Treasury Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI.) For more information about these programs, visit mybdf.org.