News
Blackfeet tribal community leader Elouise Cobell was recently announced as one of 21 recipients who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Cobell is an advocate for Native American self-determination and financial independence and in this vein was one of the founders of CDBA member Native American Bank.
Balancing the competing demands of social impact and financial returns is a major source of effort for community development practitioners. Researchers from the Omidyar Network recently published an article detailing their impact investment philosophy across a spectrum that extends from fully commercial investments to philanthropic grants.
Beneficial State Bank is paving the way as the first community development financial institution in California's Central Valley and tenth business in the city of Fresno to receive the certification as a California Green Business, demonstrating the bank's commitment to serving as a conduit for economic development and environmental sustainability.
City First Bank of DC is currently seeking an experienced & forward thinking Director of Bank Operations that will be responsible for the oversight of Branch Administration (including branch operations), Deposit Operations, Electronic Banking, and Product Implementation. Please circulate this job to any colleagues or contacts you think would be an excellent fit.
A recent survey from Schwab Retirement Plan Services, Inc. finds there are significant gaps between the way male and female Millennials approach planning and saving for retirement. Millennial men are close to evenly split on whether they are more concerned about being healthy enough or having enough money to enjoy retirement, while Millennial women are overwhelmingly more concerned with financial security once they stop working.
The transition team of President-elect Trump recently issued a statement laying out their intention to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act, therefore proposing regulatory relief for banks. As one of the first announcement out of the recently formed team, it is clear that domestic economic development policies will be at the heart of the new administration's agenda.
Regulatory efforts to expand fintech appear to have a clear bipartisan mandate as analysts discuss the impacts of the 2016 election on the upcoming 115th Congress. As the article states, "The pending Trump administration is also unlikely to derail efforts by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to address fintech, including the possibility of releasing a charter dedicated to fintech firms. The agency is due to make a decision on that by year-end, at which point a proposal would likely be issued."
Annie Donovan, CDFI Fund Director, shares her vision for the future of the CDFI & CDE movement nationwide at the Opportunity Finance Network Conference, a large gathering of CDFI-certified financial institutions held in late October. Watch the video here.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently published a report on the status of the Community Development Capital Initiative (CDCI) and documents related to the Early Repurchase Option. They reported that as of September 30th 2016, 55 of the original 84 financial institutions remain in the program including 24 banks and 35 credit unions. The 10 largest remaining institutions are all banks and account for $286 million (68%) of the outstanding investment while the remaining $134 million (32%) was spread among the rest of the financial institutions.