Banesco USA secured a major investment from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s fund for community financial institutions.

The Coral Gables-based bank will receive $237.5 million from the Emergency Capital Investment Program to support minority-owned businesses and borrowers in the communities it serves in South Florida and Puerto Rico.

Banesco USA will use its investment to expand its lending to minority-owned businesses, develop new lending products, and increase its support of businesses and organizations that provide benefits to low- and moderate-income populations.

As a Minority Depository Institution, Banesco USA is the only Florida-based bank to receive an ECIP investment. Margate-based We Florida Financial and Tampa-based Suncoast Credit Union and GTE Federal Credit Union also received investments from the program as registered Community Development Financial Institutions.

“Access to ECIP capital enables Banesco USA to expand its product offerings and significantly increase its lending capabilities. This combination will serve to accelerate the positive impact Banesco USA facilitates in our communities,” said President and CEO Calixto Garcia-Velez, who joined the bank in October. “The lending we are able to offer, for both individuals and businesses, will immensely expand and those benefits will reverberate for years to come.”

Banesco USA, an independent Florida state-chartered bank, has four branches across Coral Gables, Hialeah, Aventura, and Miami’s Brickell Financial District, and one in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As of June 30, the bank held $1.4 billion in deposits across the tri-county region, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The $8.7 billion ECIP program was created to increase lending to small and minority-owned businesses and LMI consumers in underserved communities that were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In total, the program will deploy investments to 186 community financial institutions in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam.

Visit the South Florida Business Journal for more details.