E-News from the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions

Ethical MarketsSRI/ESG News

January 21, 2009

2009 Outlook for Community Investing
The Federation, a leader in the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) movement, has just released its Outlook for Community Investing in 2009, highlighting the positive and negative trends facing CDFIs in the coming year.

Among the positive trends are:
Broad favorable media coverage of CDFIs in the current crisis, including articles and segments in Newsweek, Reuters, and NPR

Efforts to obtain as much as $2 billion in new investment for CDFIs through the TARP and other economic stimulus funds.

A generally strong financial position of CDFIs, enabling them to loan and invest where many banks have not

Positive results reported for program- and mission-related investing

Adverse trends include recent attacks on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and a retreat by major banks from community investment and funding.

Rosenthal Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from OFN

On December 10, 2008, Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal was honored by the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) with the 2008 Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Lending during the recent OFN Conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Federation, CUs “Bank” for Financial Empowerment in NYC
On December 15 – 19, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) ran a week-long financial empowerment “phone bank” for city residents in partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY) and the New York Daily News. The Your Money hotline provided free money management advice and referrals to financial education providers that participate in the City’s Financial Education Network. Financial experts from across the metropolitan area volunteered, including staff from the Federation and a number of its member credit unions.

National Media Lauds CDCUs
CDCUs have long known that lending to borrowers with imperfect credit is not necessarily bad business. While a chorus of media voices have asserted that low-income people and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) are to blame for the mortgage meltdown and subsequent financial crisis, new coverage in major national print and online media is bursting the “blame bubble” and publicizing the sound financial record of CDCUs and other community development financial institutions (CDFIs).

A recent article by Newsweek Senior Editor Daniel Gross addresses this issue, citing the efforts of various CDCUs. In “A Risk Worth Taking,” Gross highlights the “ethical subprime lending industry,” made up of CDCUs and other CDFIs. He explains that CDFIs’ are unique in their “double bottom line,” which looks at social mission along with profits when lending to their constituencies.

CDCUs Bank on SF

Initiative to Become Permanent City Program
With strong support from the City of San Francisco and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Bank on San Francisco brought together 17 credit unions and banks operating throughout the city, including two CDCUs: Mission SF FCU and Northeast Community FCU. Other credit unions involved in the program included Patelco CU, Redwood CU, San Francisco FCU, and Spectrum CU.

In just two years, program participants opened 31,247 new accounts with previously unbanked consumers. More importantly, 80 percent of those accounts (24,714) remain open with average account balances of $980. Total savings for the newly banked individuals exceeds $19 million.

Federation, CDFI Coalition Request $1BB from TARP
The Federation and its colleagues at the CDFI Coalition have urged the federal government to set aside $1 billion of the $750 billion allocated under the Emergency Economic Recovery Act for capital infusions to CDFIs, including community development credit unions (CDCUs), to support increased lending and investment in low- and moderate-income communities.

New Members in 2008
Welcome to all the credit unions that joined the Federation in the past year! We look forward to working with all of you to help you serve underserved communities.

CDCUs Community Development Partners
Express CU (Seattle, WA) Bethpage FCU (Bethpage, NY)
First Service CU (Milwaukee, WI) Local Government FCU (Raleigh, NC)
Georgia Family FCU (Altanta, GA) Mauntauk CU (New York, NY)
Kappa Alpha PSI FCU (Dallas, TX) Melrose CU (Briarwood, NY)
McPherson FCU (Tyron, NE) Prospera CU (Appleton, WI)
Molokai Community FCU (Kaunakakai, HI) Texas Dow Employees CU (Jackson Lake,TX)
NCI FCU (Houston, TX)
Tongass FCU (Ketchikan, AK)
Valued Member CU (Jackson, MS)

CDCU Job Openings
President/CEO – Neighborhood Trust FCU (NY, NY)
Job openings are also posted on our website at no cost to our members. To submit a job opening, email the ad to: [email protected].

35th Annual Conference on Serving the Underserved
June 10-14, 2009 | Phoenix, Arizona
Register today and save big with our “Early-Bird” Discounts