News
"It's no secret that our nation faces a massive housing affordability crisis. With soaring rents and home prices shutting the door to homeownership for moderate- and middle-income families, this has truly become an emergency. Historically, community development financial institutions have played only a small role in housing finance outside of a few large entities supporting traditional affordable housing projects. However, current circumstances have created an opportunity for CDFIs to significantly impact the housing crisis through new and innovative approaches."
"Our institution continues to raise the bar for what mission-focused community development banks can accomplish, as well as for the impacts we can create for underserved communities. In 2022, we set out to lay the groundwork for an ambitious five-year plan to double in size and impact, which we've dubbed our Delivering Impactful Growth Strategic Roadmap. Last year, that foundational planning was put into action, momentum that will help propel us through the remaining five years of this growth plan.
Thanks to our employees at every level, some of whom in positions and divisions that are new to our organization, as well as the support of our partners, this expansion of our efforts produced some incredible impacts for our communities in 2023."
Treasury urges Federal Home Loan banks to spend more on affordable housing:
"On July 31, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo met with the leadership of the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Sandra Thompson, to discuss what steps the FHLBs can take to better support the development of affordable housing.
During the meeting, Deputy Secretary Adeyemo urged the FHLBs to deploy more of the significant resources at their disposal to expand housing supply in service of their public mission. Specifically, Adeyemo called on FHLBs to spend at least 20% of their net income on affordable housing and to use a portion of their existing unrestricted retained earnings to create a pool of capital that can lower the cost of new housing production across the country."
Senate Appropriations FSGG Subcommittee proposes $30 million (9.3%) increase in FY 2025 funding for CDFI Fund; Bank Enterprise Award remains at $40 million:
"The bill provides $354 million for the CDFI Fund, a $30 million or 9.3% increase over fiscal year 2024, to generate economic growth and provide access to credit and technical assistance to underserved communities across the country. This includes $35 million—a $7 million increase—for the Native CDFI Assistance Program (NACA) to promote access to capital and financial services in Native communities."
Key Findings:
- "Elements of solar financing products and sales processes are identical to those used by predatory subprime lenders in 2007 to target low- and moderate-income and minority borrowers.
- GoodLeap, Sunlight Financial, Mosaic, Sunrun, and Sunnova together account for 80% of the residential solar loan market, according to the most recently available public estimate.
- Solar financing agreements often leave homeowners in a worse economic situation than before the door-to-door salesperson visited them. This solar debt elevates the risk that the consumer will lose their home to bankruptcy or foreclosure.
- The price of the solar system typically is substantially inflated if a consumer finances a system. This allows door-to-door sellers to falsely represent that borrowers are getting financing with a low nominal payment rate when most of the financing cost is hidden in the inflated price of the solar panel system. This markup amount is not revealed to the homeowner, and installers are often forbidden from disclosing the markup."
"Renasant Corporation (NYSE: RNST) ('Renasant') and The First Bancshares, Inc. ('The First') (NYSE: FBMS) jointly announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger, pursuant to which The First will merge with and into Renasant (the 'Merger') in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.2 billion, based on Renasant's closing stock price as of July 26, 2024. The Merger has been approved unanimously by each company's board of directors and is expected to close in the first half of 2025. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the approval of Renasant and The First shareholders."
"Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, introduced legislation Thursday seeking to require banks to engage in periodic test borrowing at the Federal Reserve's discount window.
The bill would also require regulators evaluating banks' liquidity preparedness to give lenders credit if they can successfully use the window. The discount window is the Fed's short-term lending facility designed to help banks facing a liquidity crunch.
The bill also outlined ways the Fed needs to modernize discount window operations, including by extending available hours, according to a summary of the legislation shared with Banking Dive."
"At the June 14 Annual Meeting of the NYS CDFI Coalition, we welcomed new board members Dan Fielding of Habitat for Humanity, NYC and Westchester and Lloyd Doaman of Carver Bank.
After serving 6 years as President of the Chair of the Coalition Board, Linda MacFarlane, Executive Director of the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region, stepped down. We thank her for her leadership.
Aisha Benson, CEO of NFF, the Nonprofit Finance Fund, was elected Chair, leaving a vacancy in the Vice Chair position, which was filled by Jessie Lee, Managing Director of Renaissance Economic Development Corporation."
"The Mission Driven Bank Fund today announced its latest investments in Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Minority Depository Institution (MDI) banks committed to expanding financial services in underserved communities. The two investments reflect the Fund's aim to help close the racial wealth gap by providing mission-aligned banks with a range of financing instruments and tailored technical services."
Vice Chair Travis Hill spoke at the American Enterprise Institute on changes to the brokered deposit rule and other topics:
"The past year and a half has been a pivotal time for the FDIC. With three of the four largest bank failures in U.S. history, longstanding questions have reemerged about how to address bank runs, and newer questions have emerged regarding how FDIC receiverships are funded. Today, I will offer thoughts on both of these topics, along with views on the FDIC's approach to brokered deposits and a few thoughts on the path forward for the Basel III Endgame proposal."