Member Services | Member Resources « Our Business is Your Business»

Our Business is Your Business

Product and Service information for FHLBank Pittsburgh members

Banking On Business (BOB) Funding Announced for 2012
By John Bendel, Director, Community Investment

Since 2000, the Banking On Business (BOB) program has provided more than $46 million in funding to more than 500 new or existing businesses. More than 6,400 jobs across Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have been preserved or created. BOB is an excellent way to complete deals that otherwise might not be bankable.

BOB funds may be used in financing the start-up or expansion of a small business and may be applied toward:

2012 BOB Program Details

FHLBank Pittsburgh’s Board of Directors has approved $2.2 million for BOB in 2012 which will be distributed through two registration periods. The first registration period opens on February 1, 2012 for $1.6 million.

The $1.6 million includes a $500,000 set-aside for small businesses located in or serving communities participating in FHLBank’s Blueprint Communities revitalization initiative. To access the list of Blueprint Communities and their corresponding census tracts, click here

To take advantage of the Blueprint Communities set-aside, you may want to explore prospective BOB deals in one or more of these communities. This set-aside will expire on September 6, 2012.

The second registration period will open on September 6, 2012 for $600,000 plus any unused funds remaining from the $1.6 million in the first registration period.

This year’s BOB manual, containing the 2012 program guidelines and the new BOB registration form (in PDF format), is available at:

http://www.fhlb-pgh.com/housing-and-community/programs/banking-on-business.html

Although the 2012 BOB program parameters are essentially unchanged from 2011, members are encouraged to take the time to visit the website and review the guidelines in preparation for the BOB registration rounds outlined above. In particular, please note the economic impact parameter, which applies to BOB requests using greater than $25,000 of BOB funds per job created or retained.

FHLBank's Community Investment staff is also available to provide on-site technical assistance upon request.

We look forward to working with our members on the BOB program this year. Please do not hesitate to call Jim Gasperowich at 412-288-2864 with questions.