Four elected to Indiana Statewide CDC Board

Two Indiana bankers are joining the board of directors of the Indiana Statewide Certified Development Corporation. Five current directors were re-elected to new terms on the 17-member board. Terri Cable, Regional President of First Merchants Bank in Fort Wayne; and Karen Gregerson, President and CEO of The Farmers Bank in Frankfort join the board. They were elected to three-year terms expiring in 2021. Three current board members elected to three-year terms expiring in 2021 were: George Day of Old National Bank in Evansville;Tim Eckerle, Grant County Economic Growth Council in Marion; Kevin Knipp, Fifth Third Bank, Indianapolis; and Larry Myers, First Savings Bank, Clarksville. Dan Fehrenbach of Western Indiana Financial in West Lafayette is also retained on the board. Fehrenbach was elected to a two-year term until December 2020. He has been a member or Board President for 35 years. Indiana Statewide CDC is certified by the US Small Business Administration to work with local lenders in providing SBA 504 loans to owners of small businesses. Indiana Statewide led Indiana CDCs in 2018 by providing 50 SBA 504 loans totaling $35.8 million to companies across Indiana. The loans created or saved approximately 550 jobs. More than 20 Indiana banks participated with Indiana Statewide CDC in the loans. These projects totaled more than $97 million when taking into account the bank portion and the borrower’s down payment. Companies receiving the loans include small manufacturers, software engineers, medical and law practices, retail and service providers. The US Small Business Administration released the totals for the state’s 504 loan activity. All together, eight CDCs made 160 loans for a total of over $97 million in 504 financing in 2018. Indiana Statewide provided 31 percent of the number of SBA 504 loans and 37% of the dollars in Indiana. Background: Indiana Statewide CDC has provided more than $520 million to 1,240 Indiana companies since 1983, creating or saving 26,595 jobs, and is the most prolific CDC in Indiana. Nationally, since Congress created the 504 program, SBA 504 loans have funded over $67 billion to more than 135,000 small businesses in the US. In turn, those small firms have created or retained over 2.1 million jobs.