Recent News
Virginia Community Capital has released its 2017 Impact Report, highlighting the last twelve months of its innovative lending portfolio. Last year, the bank surpassed a major milestone of creating $1 billion in project impact across the state. The report details VCC's impact to South Richmond's Jeff Davis Highway Corridor, focus on solar-energy investing, and innovative Virginia Fresh Food Loan Fund.
Bank of Montgomery was named 2017 Lender of the Year by USDA Rural Development State Director Dr. Carrie Castille. In 2017, Bank of Montgomery applied for and received four USDA Rural Development Business and Industry Loan Guarantees for a total of $39.25 million. They assisted these four businesses in creating and saving 289 jobs across Louisiana. Bank of Montgomery has assisted a total of 27 guaranteed loan borrowers totaling $156 million since it began participating in the Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program.
The Urban Institute has released a state-by-state assessment of how successfully governors have targeted Opportunity Zones by need and benefit. The assessment, "Did States Maximize Their Opportunity Zone Selections?", is authored by community development expert Brett Theodos. Analysis shows minimal targeting of the program toward disinvested communities by a measure of investment flows developed by the researchers. Less than a third of the designated Opportunity Zones are in tracts with the lowest levels of investment, while 28% already attract high levels of investment.
Ashoka and BNY Mellon are hosting a Changemaker Challenge–a national social innovation competition–to uncover innovations that expand financial security of underserved communities, empowering everyone to be the drivers of their own financial wellbeing, resilience, and freedom. In a moment when six out of ten Americans will experience financial insecurity, families find themselves struggling to pay rent, afford healthcare, and cover their bills at the end of each month. Financial struggles leave entire communities without the opportunity and agency to plan for their futures and reach their... Read more
Native American Bank has released its annual report, highlighting its financial condition and innovative new partnerships to benefit tribal economies and tribal members. "As we look to the future, having purchased a building in Denver to move our headquarters into, we are laying the groundwork to better serve our constituents, create a unique presence and build on our accomplishments," said CEO Tom Ogaard.
Enterprise, together with Elevate Energy, has released a case study of the Chicago Water-Efficiency Pilot: in 2016, a water-efficiency specialist visited 14 affordable housing properties across the Chicago region, providing recommendations to organizational decision-makers, along with light training and procedural recommendations for maintenance staff. Findings from the pilot suggest that affordable housing providers can benefit greatly from comprehensive water-efficiency improvements, including usage monitoring, leak repair, and upgrades or replacement of inefficient shower heads, toilets... Read more
The recently released Recission Package by the Trump Administration would claw back federal funds previously approved by Congress that promote private investment in low-income communities. The package freezes the release of over $15 billion in funding already appropriated in the FY2017 budget, including $22.8 million in funding for the U.S. Treasury's Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program and $151.3 million for the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF). “The elimination of the BEA Awards would curtail these initiatives, and have a detrimental effect on the economic stability of the regions they serve,”... Read more
This week, President Trump sent a rescission package proposal to Congress that calls for stripping more than $15 billion in previously approved spending, including funding for the CDFI Fund's Bank Enterprise Awards and Capital Magnet Fund Programs. Click here to read the CDBA press release. These programs provide incentives for banks to lend and invest in high-poverty and high-unemployment communities. They have played a crucial role in increasing the flow of capital to distressed areas and stimulating exponential private investment in CDFIs, thereby accelerating business growth,... Read more
The Harbor Bank of Maryland Community Development Corporation dedicated the Joseph Haskins, Jr. Center for Community and Economic Development on Thursday. The center, named for the bank’s founder, chairman, president and CEO, will offer several programs designed to address Baltimore entrepreneurs’ need for access to financial and social capital, as well as technical assistance, to help them grow. It also will provide entrepreneurs low-cost office space and access to resources, networks and other amenities. While the center serves all Baltimore communities, it will... Read more
The Harbor Bank of Maryland Community Development Corp. has dedicated the Joseph Haskins, Jr. Center for Community and Economic Development. The center, located at the bank's headquarters, will offer several programs designed to address altimore entrepreneurs' need for access to financial and social capital, as well as technical assistance, to help them grow. It also offers entrepreneurs low-cost office space and access to resources, networks, and other amenities. The center is already fully leased by entrepreneurial groups eager to benefit from these resources.
Carver Federal Savings Bank hosted a grand re-opening celebration with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its Crown Heights location in Brooklyn, New York on April 19. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) was present at the ceremony. Completing the festivities, The new branch manager, on behalf of the bank, presented a $20,000 check to Wilchfort to benefit the Childrens' Museum. The 70-year-old minority-owned bank now has nine full-service branches in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.
Virginia Community Capital has received a $1.5 million investment from Robins Foundation, a private family foundation with a 60-year history of leading transformational change in the greater Richmond region through innovative philanthropy. The investment will be directed toward development of affordable housing and projects that support a better quality of life for residents. The commitment includes directing $1.25 million into a LION Note (Local Impact Opportunity Note) with VCC and opening a $250,000 impact deposit account with its banking subsidiary, VCC Bank. “Robins and other... Read more
American Samoa is finally getting its own full-service bank, and successfully creating only the second public bank in the United States. The Federal Reserve is allowing the Territorial Bank of American Samoa access to the U.S. payments system nearly two years after the bank applied. The decision is a boon to the remote U.S. territory in the South Pacific, where more than half of the households are at, near or below the federal poverty level. It is also a significant development for those far away from American Samoa. The chartering of a new public bank may provide... Read more
A new report shows that despite strong job growth since the end of the Great Recession, many working families are worse off that they were in 2007, before the Great Recession began. The latest U.S. Census data shows that three out of every 10 working families were low-income in 2016. In addition, income and wealth gaps between working families at the top and bottom of the economic ladder remain at all-time highs. The report, produced jointly by PRB and The Working Poor Families Project, also found disturbing growing inequality among racial and ethnic groups.
Bloomington, Indiana has introduced itself as the first "CDFI Friendly City", in hopes of establishing a new model to bring national financing to local community development. CDFIs, which serve neighborhoods or groups the financial sector has historically neglected, have expanded in recent years but still aren't reaching many American cities. "More than a quarter of counties in the U.S. have had no CDFI lending in the five years between 2011 and 2015," says Brett Theodos, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute who studies on CDFIs. In December 2017, the Urban... Read more
Recently, several large banks have been called out for discriminatory lending practices, including not serving low income areas. For many of those residents, banking services offering personal bank accounts and loans for homes and small businesses, can be difficult to access. But some banks, like Industrial Bank, have made their focus serving those communities. This radio segment explores what it means to live in a "banking desert." Jacquie Boles, Senior Vice President at Industrial Bank, contributes.
On April 9, the Treasury Department debuted the first details of a new and far-reaching community-based tax incentive. In 18 states, newly designated zones could see a wave of new investment under a little-known provision of the recent tax overhaul. These opportunity zones are designed to lure investment to the nation's poorest urban, suburban, and rural communities with a powerful tax incentive. By the accounts of some experts, the program could deliver a vital injection to areas that haven't yet recovered from the Great Recession. Yet it could also fuel gentrification in those... Read more
Urban Institute has collected data on 274 of the largest US cities and ranked those cities on economic, racial, and overall inclusion across four decades. It also measured economic health to see whether cities could harness growth to improve inclusion. The interactive dataset can be explored online to explore national trends, learn lessons from case-study cities, and dig deeper into your own city.
In this article authored by Sunrise Banks CEO David Reiling, the possibility of an Amazon-branded checking account is discussed. Reiling examines whether the product can ceate positive social change, and suggests a potential partnership between Amazon and small, innovative banks in addition to larger institutions like JPMorgan Chase. "The key to disruption in any sector is agility," he wrote. "Big banks are far too clunky and siloed for the rapid adaptive innovation required."
If Congress passes a major rollback of banking rules put in place in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, thousands of banks could be freed from a range of federal regulations. Louisiana community bankers say that, unlike large lenders that bundle mortgages together and quickly resell them on the markets, they keep most of their loans. Ken Hale, president and CEO of the Bank of Montgomery, discussed the impact of such regulations on his bank's finances. "In most rural areas, for most community banks, real estate lending is kind of our bread and butter," he said, explaining that federal... Read more