PEOPLE TRUST Community Loan Fund

After the financial crisis of 2008, the State of Arkansas banned Payday Lending and did to follow up with a safer alternative for access to capital for the unbanked and underbanked individuals and disadvantaged, small businesses. These low income communities lack financial education and small business technical assistance. Every community has to have a financial mechanism in place within the community to provide essential financial products and developmental services needed for self sufficiency, economic mobility and sustainability. Economic exclusion is real, and the law restricts access to credit in Arkansas. Banks moved out of the low income communities, leaving them to “figure out how to make it work” without the essential financial tools needed for community development . It takes credit to get credit, and low income communities in Arkansas did not have access to credit. PEOPLE TRUST emerged out of an unmet credit need in the State of Arkansas. PEOPLE TRUST is the only Black-Owned Financial Institution in the state.