123-300-0301 Lender Eligibility and Award Procedure (1) Program awards to lenders will be made through a competitive RFP process administered by the Department, of which no more than 10% of the available funds may be awarded to any single lender as a result of any RFP process. (2) The Department shall determine a lender’s eligibility to participate in the Program, based on the submitted proposal and other information the Department may deem necessary. An eligible Program lender is one that is both: (a) A Qualified Lender; and, (b) Meets the criteria of a Community Lender. (3) The Department shall evaluate Program proposals submitted in response to an RFP from eligible lenders according to the following criteria: (a) The number of loans closed, the value of loans closed, and the value of the total project costs annually for the 5-year period preceding the submission of the lender’s proposal that were made to Oregon based businesses; (b) Historical performance of loans made by the lender; (c) The projected loan production and portfolio performance, including assumptions for the projections, over the 10-year compliance period of the award; (d) How the lender proposes to increase the accessibility of capital for SEDIs and SEDI-owned businesses through its outreach, application process, underwriting criteria and lending terms that are designed to reduce historic barriers to capital; (e) How the lender proposes to provide, or collaborate with providers of, technical assistance and financial literacy services to SEDIs and SEDI-owned businesses; (f) How the lender’s service area and loans made under the program will support regionally diverse and rural areas of this state ; (g) The underwriting standards, loan loss provisions, loan terms and conditions the lender proposes to use when evaluating and establishing a reasonable determination of the Borrower’s ability to service the debt and repay the loan obligation in; (h) The lender’s proposed standard documentation requirements for Enrolled Loans, including information on default provisions; (i) How the lender’s assistance will create a path for Borrowers to graduate to traditional, low-cost forms of private capital through partnerships with, and utilization of, programs administered by Business Oregon, federal agencies and private financial institutions as defined by ORS 706.008; (j) The lender’s plans and strategies to maintain a self-sustaining loan loss reserve account necessary to continue to increase the accessibility of capital for Oregon businesses, including SEDIs and SEDI-owned businesses, through small business loans; and (k) The lender’s overall financial health. including the viability of the lender and the lender’s business lending portfolio(s). (4) After reviewing and evaluating proposals, the Department shall reject or accept proposals and determine the award amount for each accepted proposal from eligible lenders. (5) The Department may make a conditional award to an eligible lender, subject to modifications to the lender’s proposal and the Departments’ acceptance of the amended proposal for the lender to meet the evaluation criteria. (6) As soon as practicable after the awards are finalized, the Department shall notify the lenders that submitted proposals for the RFP of the results and offer the awards to the lenders whose Program proposals are accepted. (7) A lender shall accept a Program award offer by timely entering into an Agreement for a Program award with the Department as described in OAR 123-300-0401 within 90 days of the award. After 90 days, an award will be rescinded and may be reallocated, at the Department’s sole discretion, to other Qualified Lenders from the RFP. Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 285A.075 & ORS 285B.780 - ORS 285B.799 Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 285B.780 - ORS 285B.799 & ORS 279B History: OBDD 9-2023, adopt filed 06/13/2023, effective 06/13/2023