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Effective Date:Oct 30, 2026
The Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund published three Federal Register notices on October 30, 2026, proposing revisions to the applications and reporting requirements that govern its core programs. The most consequential is a rewrite of the New Markets Tax Credit Program's Community Development Entity Certification Application, the gatekeeping document every organization must clear before it can receive and deploy NMTC allocations. Comments on all three notices are due December 29, 2026.
The proposed revision, detailed in Docket No. CDFI-2026-0201 (91 FR 68600), would make four specific changes. First, it would remove references to "Minority-Owned or Controlled" organizations in describing an applicant's structure. Second, it would add a new "Affiliate Information" subsection requiring disclosure of ownership, control, and foreign interests for applicant affiliates. Third, it would add a new "Government Investigations and Enforcement" subsection requiring applicants to report investigations, enforcement actions, and related matters. Fourth, it would add detailed language on federal anti-discrimination requirements, alignment with specific executive orders, and prevention of fraud, waste, and abuse.
The CDFI Fund described the update as ensuring that "applicants are meeting the statutory and regulatory disclosure requirements as well as protecting government resources in alignment with Administration priorities where appropriate." The action is a revision of a currently approved information collection (OMB Control Number 1559-0014), covering an estimated 150 applicants annually at roughly four hours per response.
CDE certification is the entry ticket to the New Markets Tax Credit, which finances a substantial share of community facilities, mixed-use projects, and commercial space layered into affordable housing developments. Only certified CDEs can receive NMTC allocations, so changes to the certification test determine which organizations can continue to compete for and deploy that capital. Existing CDEs must maintain certification, and the revised application signals what the CDFI Fund will scrutinize going forward: affiliate structures, foreign ownership interests, and any history of government investigation or enforcement.
The proposed removal of "Minority-Owned or Controlled" references follows a broader administration pattern of stripping demographic preferences and certifications from federal program materials. For mission-driven lenders that organized their governance around that designation, the practical effect is less about losing an advantage - NMTC allocation has never formally required the designation - and more about the signal it sends on how applications will be evaluated going forward.
A second notice published the same day (Docket No. CDFI-2026-0202) covers the CDFI Program and Native American CDFI Assistance Program applications, the annual funding competitions that award financial and technical assistance grants to community development financial institutions. A third notice renews existing performance reporting and financial audit requirements without substantive changes, according to the National Housing Conference's November 1 briefing on the package. All three carry the same December 29 comment deadline.
The immediate audience is organizations that hold or plan to seek CDE certification - community development loan funds, community development corporations, for-profit CDEs, and the CDFIs that apply for annual awards. But affordable housing developers that partner with CDEs on NMTC-financed components have a stake as well: the certification pool determines how much allocation capacity and which counterparties will exist for future deals. Comments go through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov under Docket No. CDFI-2026-0201, and the revised application text is posted on the CDFI Fund's certification page.
Comments become part of the public record. The CDFI Fund asks specifically whether the collection is necessary, whether its burden estimates are accurate, how the quality and clarity of the information requested could be improved, and how burden could be reduced - but substantive comments on the policy direction of the disclosure changes are equally within scope.
The New Markets Tax Credit, created by the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 and codified at Section 45D of the Internal Revenue Code, provides investors a credit over seven years in exchange for equity investments in Community Development Entities. The CDFI Fund, within Treasury, administers the program. To qualify for an allocation, an entity must first be certified as a CDE - a domestic corporation or partnership with a primary mission of serving or providing investment capital for low-income communities or low-income persons, and one that maintains accountability to low-income community residents through representation on its governing or advisory board. Certification is not a one-time event in practice: the application and its representations shape how the CDFI Fund evaluates an organization's standing, and certified CDEs compete for limited allocations in periodic, heavily oversubscribed rounds.
In affordable housing, NMTC capital rarely funds residential units directly - the statute bars using it for residential rental property in most cases - but it routinely finances the non-residential pieces of mixed-use and community-development projects: ground-floor commercial space, health clinics, childcare centers, workforce facilities, and community rooms attached to LIHTC developments. That makes the CDE ecosystem part of the financing plumbing for the affordable housing industry even when the credits themselves never touch a housing unit.
The "Affiliate Information" subsection is the most operationally significant addition for larger organizations. Many active CDEs sit inside complex structures - parent nonprofits, affiliated loan funds, related for-profit subsidiaries, joint ventures. Requiring disclosure of ownership, control, and foreign interests across affiliates means applicants will need to map and document those relationships at a level of detail the current application does not demand. For CDEs with community bank, credit union, or philanthropic investors, or with any foreign-linked capital in the structure, the new subsection will require legal review before filing.
The "Government Investigations and Enforcement" subsection adds a conduct screen. Applicants would have to disclose government investigations and enforcement actions - a category broad enough to cover everything from formal regulatory orders to open agency inquiries. Organizations will need to decide how to characterize matters that were resolved without findings, and whether to err on the side of over-disclosure. The notice gives no safe-harbor thresholds.
The anti-discrimination and executive-order language embeds the administration's compliance framing directly into the certification document. Applicants will be making representations, not just answering questions - representations that could carry consequences in later audits or allocation reviews if they prove inaccurate.
All three notices run on the same clock: written comments must be received on or before December 29, 2026, to be assured of consideration. That is a 60-day comment period measured from the October 30 publication date, and it spans the year-end holidays, which compresses effective drafting time. Trade associations representing CDFIs and community development lenders are expected to submit consolidated comments; individual organizations with unusual affiliate structures or a stake in the minority-ownership language should consider filing independently as well.
After the comment window closes, the CDFI Fund will summarize and address comments in its request for OMB approval of the revised collections. The revised forms would then take effect for subsequent certification and award cycles. Organizations with certification renewals or allocation applications on the horizon should assume the new disclosure burden arrives in their next filing and begin assembling affiliate and enforcement-history documentation now, rather than waiting for the final forms.
The core statutory test for CDE certification is untouched: a domestic corporation or partnership, a primary mission of serving low-income communities or persons, and accountability to those communities through board representation. The estimated respondent universe also stays small - roughly 150 applications a year at about four hours each in the CDFI Fund's own estimate - though compliance officers at organizations with layered affiliates are likely to find that figure optimistic under the revised form. The third notice in the package, renewing performance progress reporting and financial audit requirements, makes no substantive changes, so organizations' ongoing post-award reporting obligations continue on their current footing.
Comments go through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov under Docket No. CDFI-2026-0201 for the CDE certification notice, and the revised application text is available on the CDFI Fund's certification page. The Fund's contact for the collection is Shannon McKay, Acting Program Manager for the Office of Certification Policy and Evaluation.
Developers that have used NMTC financing for the commercial or community-facility portions of LIHTC projects should also note the indirect exposure: if the revised certification test knocks established CDEs out of contention or slows their recertification, allocation capacity in future rounds tightens, and the pricing and availability of NMTC equity for mixed-use deals would move with it. That is a second-order effect, but in a program where demand for allocations has consistently exceeded supply by wide margins, even small capacity shifts matter to deal pipelines.
Treasury is rewriting the gatekeeping documents for the CDFI Fund's largest programs with an emphasis on ownership transparency, enforcement history, and executive order alignment. The December 29 deadline is the only formal opportunity to shape the revised applications before they are submitted to OMB for approval. Organizations whose certification or funding depends on these forms should review the actual revised text now and file comments while the window is open.
Sources: Federal Register Doc. 2026-22240, 91 FR 68600 (Oct. 30, 2026); Federal Register Doc. 2026-22241 (Oct. 30, 2026); National Housing Conference Member Brief, Nov. 1, 2026.
The Treasury Department's CDFI Fund has proposed the most significant revision in years to the certification application that governs who can deploy New Markets Tax Credit capital, with public comments due December 29, 2026.
The revised Community Development Entity Certification Application would remove references to "Minority-Owned or Controlled" organizations and add new disclosure sections covering affiliate ownership, control, and foreign interests.
A new "Government Investigations and Enforcement" subsection would require applicants to disclose investigations and enforcement actions, and additional language addresses federal anti-discrimination requirements, executive order alignment, and fraud prevention.
Companion notices published the same day cover the CDFI Program and Native American CDFI Assistance Program applications, while a third renews existing performance reporting without changes.
For affordable housing developers that rely on NMTC financing layered into LIHTC deals, the changes could reshape which organizations qualify to allocate credits, making the December 29 comment window the immediate action item.
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