When it comes to USDA Rural Development’s line of guaranteed loans, grants and other resources for rural infrastructure projects, well, RD’s Acting Chief Information Officer Jim Barham says there are questions from consumers such as, “What have you done for me lately? What is already doing in my community?” and regarding specific products like rural development commercial guaranteed loans.
“A lot of customers say we want to know the health of your portfolio. Are you making risky loans? Are you making sound loans? What kind of impact is it having in these communities?”
That is where recent efforts to improve data transparency and answer those questions come in. First, there is RD’s Rural Data Gateway.
“The intent of the Rural Data Gateway was to be basically like a one-stop shop for all of Rural Development’s data that allows the customer to dig into all of our Rural Development investment data. You can do that whether they’re interested in county level or the state congressional district, basically be able to see where all of our investment data is across the country.”
The latest buildout of the Rural Data Gateway was recently announced.
“The Lender Lens is providing a perspective to our customers of the lenders we work with. What we’ve made available to the public is our commercial guaranteed loan portfolio.”
Barham says, put another way, it is a look at the lenders RD works with in these specific loan products.
“One of the products that we offer are these things called guaranteed loans. And within our commercial portfolio, we have business guaranteed loans, as well as these community facility loans for essential facilities, whether you’re looking to fund a fire station or a school or a hospital. All those things, we have these guaranteed loans, as well as for our water systems. So whether it’s drinking water or wastewater, we have these guaranteed loans.”
So, as an example, “a community, whether it’s a local bank or maybe it’s just a small business owner, if he’s looking to finance his business and he goes to his local bank, he knows that there is an opportunity to also work with USDA to help back that loan, help lower that risk for that local bank, so we can actually have success and he can build his business.”
The Lender Lens and Rural Data Gateway are located online at www.rd.usda.gov. Go to the About RD tab on the home page, then click the link to Rural Data Gateway.