Recent News
CDBA CEO Jeannine Jacokes wrote to the House Financial Services and Small Business Committees urging that the next recovery package addressing the current health and economic crisis provide meaningful support for low- and moderate-income communities. To ensure resources are directed to the most severely impacted people and places, CDBA asks that Congress provide $1 billion for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, direct the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve to create a meaningful set-a-side within its Main Street program for CDFIs and Minority Depository... Read more
Major banking trades, including the Community Development Bankers Association (CDBA), American Bankers Association (ABA), Bank Policy Institute (BPI), Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), National Bankers Association (NBA), and National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL), are collectively urging Congress to appropriate $1 billion for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund to aid in economic recovery in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In letters to... Read more
President Trump on Tuesday praised some of the country's largest financial firms for pledging to take new steps to help small businesses disrupted by the coronavirus. Trump heralded their plans as he hosted a video conference with leaders of banks, including Darrin Williams of Southern Bancorp. You can view the video call here; Williams begins speaking around 6:30. The participants — who also included executives from community banks — have been helping the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration distribute $349 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program.
Community banks are eager to make loans to help their small-business customers stay afloat while the economy remains shut down due to social distancing, but many face a significant hurdle: They don't have enough deposits on hand to meet loan demand. As a result, small banks have been turning with more frequency to deposit placement firms like StoneCastle Partners in New York to help to secure the funding they need to offer bridge loans or participate in the federal government’s emergency small-business loan program. In the last week, Farmers & Merchants Bank in Miamisburg, Ohio,... Read more
Websites have crashed, phones are jammed and confusion reigns as businesses rushed at today's kickoff to get their chunk of the $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program. This is a race to save jobs in the present and the future, and to ensure that as many workers as possible keep their benefits and paychecks during the coronavirus lockdown. Because many banks only are accepting existing business clients, and some other banks aren't processing PPP loans at all, it's likely that many small businesses will get left out because they picked the "wrong" bank years ago.... Read more
CDBA and the major banking trades wrote congressional leaders to strongly urge that the provisions which would enhance and incentivize SBA's 7(a) loan program be included in the final CARES Act legislation. Private-sector banks and credit unions, whether they currently participate in SBA lending or not, will be turning to the SBA’s 7(a) loan program as the way to deliver capital and economic relief to the economy while conventional lending recedes in the wake of the current economic turmoil. However, in order to quickly stimulate essential lending, lenders need the tried and true... Read more
The Federal Reserve will temporarily stop all examination activity for banks with less than $100 billion of assets as it shifts supervisory priorities due to the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said Tuesday. The Fed is shifting its supervisory focus to monitoring and outreach to "help financial institutions of all sizes understand the challenges and risks of the current environment." The agency said it will be minimizing examination activities in order to do so, with the greatest reduction at smallest banks. The temporary shift will last until at least the end of April, when the... Read more
Banks and credit unions are eager to take advantage of newfound flexibility for restructuring loans battered by the coronavirus outbreak. Federal regulators and the Financial Accounting Standards board gave lenders a helping hand Sunday, agreeing that short-term loan modifications tied to the pandemic do not have to immediately count as troubled-debt restructurings. Normally, any concession made to a borrower would trigger classification as a TDR. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, restructured loans at banks topped $140 billion at the end of 2011. Clearly, regulators are hoping to... Read more
The stakes are high for the financial services industry as lawmakers battle over the details of a new stimulus package to provide economic relief for businesses and consumers affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Although Senate Democrats blocked a vote on a package sponsored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a whole host of provisions benefiting banks, credit union and other financial firms appears still to be on the table in McConnell's plan and other proposals being floated on Capitol Hill. McConnell's package included several industry-backed measures intended to make it easier... Read more
Restaurants and shops are closed across the U.S. to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Federal government has started to address the resulting economic pain with an emergency declaration by President Donald Trump releasing $50 billion for public-health measures and congressional passage of a multi-billion dollar relief bill providing some paid sick leave and extended unemployment benefits, among other assistance. Fortunately, the U.S. Senate stepped up on Thursday to do more. Senate Republicans released a trillion-dollar economic recovery proposal that includes $1,200 direct... Read more
Congress is negotiating a sweeping stimulus package to offset the cascading damage wrought by the coronavirus. The package includes $500 billion for two waves of direct payments to taxpayers and an additional $500 billion in loans for businesses. To help small businesses specifically, those of us in the nonprofit small business lending space are coming together to ask Congress to apportion $1 billion of the $500 billion earmarked for businesses to go to the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. The fund, which has strong bipartisan support, promotes economic revitalization in... Read more
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the agencies) recognize the potential for Coronavirus Disease (also referred to as COVID-19) to adversely affect the customers and operations of financial institutions. On March 9, 2020, the federal financial institution regulatory agencies and state bank regulators issued a statement to encourage financial institutions to meet the financial services needs of their customers and members in areas... Read more
Promontory Interfinancial Network has named banking industry veterans Camden Fine and Ed Yingling to its board and former American Banker Editor-in-Chief Rob Blackwell as its chief content officer and head of external affairs. Fine was the head of the Independent Community Bankers of America for 15 years before retiring in 2018, while Yingling worked at the American Bankers Association for 26 years in various roles, including president and CEO. After leaving ABA in 2010, Yingling worked as a partner at Covington & Burling until departing in 2018 to run Edward Yingling Government... Read more
The new CEO of Houston's only black-owned bank is counting on a budding relationship with Citigroup to expand its product set and boost profits. Laurie Vignaud joined Unity National Bank of Houston in January from Capital One, where she was senior vice president of community development banking. She took the helm two months after the failure of City National Bank of New Jersey in Newark cut the ranks of banks owned or operated by African Americans to 21 — about half of what existed before the financial crisis. Vignaud said she is convinced that the 34-year-old Unity must embrace a new... Read more
The CDFI Fund recently awarded 23 CDFIs Capital Magnet Fund awards for FY 2019. Among the awardees were Beneficial State Bank, Legacy Bank and Trust, United Bank, and Virginia Community Capital. The Capital Magnet Fund helps to create and preserve affordable housing for low-income families and economically distressed communities by attracting private capital. The Capital Magnet Fund awards competitive grants to CDFIs and qualified non-profit housing organizations. These organizations use the grants to develop, rehabilitate, reserve, and purchase affordable housing, particularly housing... Read more
The Crichlow family had been renting their modest home in North Miami for about 20 years. That changed last week, thanks to a Miami-Dade County-backed program targeting first-time homebuyers, and a loan from one of the largest black-owned banks in the United States, OneUnited Bank. The Crichlows say they found their dream home thanks to the program: A three-bedroom house in Miami Gardens with a "beautiful" kitchen and living room, according to Mrs. Crichlow, and a big yard. It is perfect for their two young sons. The gap between black and non-black homeownership rates remains... Read more
Dominik Mjartan become president and CEO of what would become Optus Bank, an organization with a historic but rocky past, in September 2017. The bank, founded in 1921 as Victory Savings Banks and then known as S.C. Community Bank, was at its lowest point, reeling from the Great Recession of 2008, mired in a mess of non-performing assets and on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s troubled bank list. How the bank got from there to record assets, a swanky new downtown headquarters and a swelling sense of optimism involves the commitment of long-time believers — and their money — along... Read more
Central Payments announced last month its seven-member advisory board for Falls Fintech, the organization's early-stage, onsite accelerator for upstart financial technology companies. Nikkee Rhody, Falls Fintech Managing Director and Co-founder, commented on the group: "This advisory board reflects our commitment to connecting accelerator participants with fintech pioneers and thought leaders, and this group's contributions have already been felt as we finalize plans for our inaugural cohort." Among the seven members is Bill Dana, Vice Chairman and former President/CEO at Central Bank of... Read more
City First Bank is thrilled to welcome Annie Donovan to the bank's Board of Directors. Donovan currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national nonprofit that works with community-based partners to make investments in housing, businesses, jobs, education, safety and health. "We are extremely fortunate to have the benefit of Annie's extraordinary leadership; impressive intellect; and deep experience with innovative and successful approaches for developing healthy, sustainable communities," said Brian E. Argrett, President and CEO of... Read more
Although his own Treasury Department calls the Community Development Financial Institutions program a "thriving model of public-private partnership," President Trump on Monday once again proposed eliminating the program. The proposal was included in the Trump Administration's $4.8 Trillion FY21 budget released Monday. This year, the program received a $12 million increase, to $262 million, in the end-of-year spending deal enacted in December. The proposed cuts came even after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a House appropriations subcommittee in April that the administration had not... Read more