Tag: Financial Inclusion

credit unions small dollar lending

Study finds fintech offers lending promise rather than missed opportunities for credit unions

Financial Inclusion
Sometimes the effort credit unions take to protect themselves creates the opposite effect — the effort itself harms the organization’s best interests and the interests of those you dedicate yourselves to helping.  A recent study by Filene Research and credit reporting agency TransUnion found that as credit unions have tightened lending standards during this uncertain […]
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Regulatory agencies encourage CUs to meet communities’ needs in response to CA wildfires and Hurricane Ida

Financial Inclusion
All four federal regulatory agencies – the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – have once again released separate joint statements encouraging financial institutions to “meet the financial services needs of their communities” in or near the two major disasters […]
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credit unions financial inclusion

How credit unions can level up on financial inclusion

Financial Inclusion
The last year and a half has proven both the inevitability and acceptance that has come with the digitization of the economy in the United States during and after COVID.  Since March of 2020 the tide of consumer online purchasing has come in, and we have shown no sign of returning to the pre-pandemic, brick-and-mortar […]
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CUNA credit union small dollar loans

Mr. Nussle goes to Washington

Financial Inclusion
There has been a great fallacy permeating popular media over the last few years about the credit union movement and its growth through the acquisition of banks. Bank associations have pushed heavily on an inaccuracy (falsehood?) that their own institutional members are being “bought up by” <insert GASP! here> member-owned credit unions. Following a moment […]
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credit unions financial inclusion

How credit unions can maximize financial inclusion for members

Financial Inclusion
Here is a statistic to grab your attention: Underserved consumers spent $189 billion on fees and interest across five financial product categories in 2018 that included short-term credit. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) estimates that 57 percent of consumers in the United States, 138 million adults, […]
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How CDFIs represent what is possible for underserved communities

Financial Inclusion
“CDFIs, at the heart of it, are community lenders. If you think about where banks step out, CDFIs step in. They deliver responsible capital where it is needed in a very place-based, community-first approach. Most CDFIs are nonprofits and there is tremendous alignment around ensuring their borrowers are successful. They win when community wins.”  Catherine Berman, […]
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How can your credit union improve its position to apply for a CDFI grant?

Uncategorized
Just last week on June 5, great news reached the United States’ credit union community. The United States Treasury announced they had awarded $1.25 billion in COVID-19 relief funds to 863 community development financial institutions (CDFI).   The grants were provided through the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution Rapid Response Program (CDFI RRP) and provided appropriate capital for CDFIs to address […]
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How Your Credit Union Can Join the Fight for Financial Inclusion

Financial Health
The fight for greater financial inclusion and stability in America has begun for millions of consumers following the pandemic that has pervaded industries, neighborhoods, and families in fundamental ways.  According to Pew Research in March 2021, about 50 percent of all adults who are not retired claim the pandemic has made it harder for them to reach […]
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Access to Small Dollar Lending Increases with Financial Inclusion Bill

Financial Inclusion
Financial access to America’s economically underserved communities may have just received a big legislative boost.  The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) wrote a letter to the House Financial Services Committee leadership on June 8, 2021, fully backing the proposed Expanding Financial Access for Underserved Communities Act, an amendment to the Federal Credit Union Act. During the May hearing, […]
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Why CDFIs Are Exactly What Consumers Need Right Now

Financial Inclusion
In early April of this year, NPR ran a story on the underbanked and what it meant to run one’s financial life outside the American banking system. Whether it’s the perception of higher fees, lack of trust, or something else, 63 million underbanked or unbanked Americans do not use a financial institution to save money, cash checks, apply for […]
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