Quarterly Technical Assistance Review

Exhibit 2 -- SSBCI Technical Assistance Questionnaire

1/18/12

General Questions [All respondents – Estimated burden 40 minutes]

Introductory Script: Thanks for taking the time to participate in today’s telephone call. As we discussed when scheduling this call, Treasury intends to gather similar information from all states, territories, and municipalities participating in the SSBCI program. This data will be used to identify ways in which Treasury can make technical assistance available to your state in the future, as well as to provide qualitative information on program performance to supplement the quantitative reporting that you already provide on a quarterly and annual basis. Your responses to these questions are voluntary, but the data that you provide will directly impact how well Treasury can tailor the technical assistance that we plan to make available to all states.

First, I’d like to ask some basic background questions about your state’s selection of SSBCI programs:

1. How did your State choose which programs to operate?
   
   
   

2. How did your State determine how much SSBCI funding to apportion to each program?
   
   
   

3. Does your State plan to add or modify programs in the coming 12 months? What modifications do you expect your State request?
   
   

This next set of questions related to transactions made under your approved state programs is meant to provide greater detail than what you are currently required to report to Treasury, but will be informative to help us understand the level of small business interest in your programs:

4. To date, how many transactions have closed under your State program?

   1. What is the total amount of SSBCI funds used and total amount of private financing?
      
      

   2. Describe the details, including loan amounts, loan terms, and characteristics of the small businesses borrowers, for one or two transactions that your State has closed.
      
      

   3. Is the transaction and dollar volume in each of your programs at the levels anticipated when you designed each program. If you are below your anticipated volume, what actions are you planning to improve deployment and leverage?
      
      

The following three questions are meant to identify whether your state has established any particular program goals or metrics in addition to the Federal requirements for program design (e.g. the 10:1 private leverage ratio expectation, establishment of a plan to provide outreach to underserved communities) and whether those goals or metrics have been determinant in promoting success:

5. How does your State characterize success for [Approved State Program] beyond the expectations established by Treasury related to the 10:1 private leverage expectation?
   

6. How does your State plan to internally measure program success?
   
   

7. For States with existing programs: What factors have contributed to your State’s historical success with [Approved State Program name]? What characteristics of the program may have prevented full success?
   
   

These next questions are related to any changes to program design or resources as your state implemented the SSBCI program(s):

8. Does your State still have the financial resources it articulated in the Application necessary to operate the program? If not, where are the available substitutions or commensurate reductions in program budgets?
   
   

9. Have you added or changed key staff since we last spoke?
   
   

10. In your application you describe the following [material program parameters represented in the Participating State’s SSBCI application]. Has anything changed?
    
    

11. Other than what was discussed already, has anything changed in your Approved Programs since your application or the last time we spoke?
    
    

These next questions relate to the role of financial institution participation in your state program(s):

12. Which characteristics of your [Approved State Program name] do you consider most important to attract financial institution lender or investor participation?
    
    
    

13. Describe your financial institution lender outreach efforts to date.

    1. Which type of financial institution is more likely to participate? (banks, credit unions, CDFIs). Why?

    2. Which specific lenders are most likely to participate or are already participating?

    3. Have lenders expressed any obstacles to participating?

    4. Are you using group events or meeting one-on-one with lenders?
       
       
       

14. Have you created a standard lender (or investor) participation agreement?
    
    
    

15. Have you created a standard enrollment form for loans and/or investments? Are all participating lenders or investors using these forms?

The following questions are an opportunity for your state to suggest specific ways in which Treasury can deliver technical assistance to all states:

16. What part of your Approved Programs are you most concerned about? How could Treasury provide assistance to overcome your concern?
    
    

17. Would you benefit from technical assistance from Treasury or other sources on any of the following areas:

    1. Program selection,
       
       

    2. Program design,
       
       

    3. Program operations,
       
       

    4. Outreach to financial institution lenders,
       
       

    5. Underserved communities outreach,
       
       
       

18. How would you like that technical assistance delivered?
    
    

    1. Conference calls with other Participating States that operate successful programs,
       
       

    2. On-site consulting from a program expert;
       
       

    3. Conference calls/webinars in which a state presents its program design and requests advice from experts and/or other states);
       
       

    4. White papers or best practice documents.

[As needed questions, to be asked only if not already provided in application materials or during previous data collections – Estimated burden 20 minutes]

1. Does your State have a financial management system in place to monitor transactions made under your Approved Programs?
   

2. Can you describe your internal control structure and the ways in which those controls are integrated into your program design and operations?
   

3. What types of additional training were needed for your staff in order to implement your State programs? Is additional training still needed?
   
   

4. What are your State’s other operational challenges in deploying SSBCI funds right now?
   
   

5. What is your State’s turnaround time to respond to applications?
   
   

6. Describe your process for sourcing, underwriting, and approving transactions under each program.
   
   

7. Prior to making investment decisions, do you have a process in place to independently evaluate the capacity and past performance of these funds?
   
   

8. For each program, what is your expected default rate? Loss rate?
   
   

9. Who is your program manager and what is their relevant lending or program management experience?