(b) The awards shall be made, through a competitive RFP process administered by the department.
(c) Of the moneys awarded as a result of any RFP process, not more than 10 percent of available funds may be awarded to any single lender.
(2) The department shall evaluate proposals according to the following criteria:
(a) The number and value of loans closed by the lender during the five-year period immediately preceding the date of submission of the lender’s proposal;
(b) The projected loan production over the performance period of the award, including the projected number of loans, the proposed principal amount of qualified loans that the lender would not make but for the moneys awarded, and the jobs to be created and retained by qualified borrowers;
(c) How the award would increase the lender’s capacity to make loans to rural or underserved entrepreneurs;
(d) The past performance of loans made by the lender;
(e) The extent to which the lender:
(A) Provides technical assistance and financial literacy services to underserved borrowers; or
(B) Partners with providers of technical assistance and financial literacy services to underserved borrowers;
(f) How the lender’s proposed outreach, application process, underwriting criteria and loan terms are designed to reduce historic barriers to borrowers’ access to loan capital;
(g) How the lender plans to ensure that the loans originated by the lender under the program are made to borrowers in regionally diverse and rural areas of this state; and
(h) Any other criteria the department considers necessary or useful for evaluating a proposal.
(3)(a) After reviewing proposals submitted in response to an RFP, the department shall reject or accept proposals and determine the amount awarded for each accepted proposal.
(b) As soon as practicable after the awards are finalized, the department shall notify the lenders that submitted proposals of the results and offer the awards to the lenders whose proposals are accepted. [2021 c.676 §3]
Note: See note under 285B.780.