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MBN USA

February 21, 2023

Themes include the racial wealth gap and strengthening stakeholder support for mission-driven banks.

WASHINGTON, DC – In support of their Impact Assessment Tool, the National Bankers Community Alliance, the 501(c)(3) arm of the National Bankers Association, hosted the Impact Stakeholder Roundtable, a virtual demonstration of the tool featuring dynamic discussions. Core themes of the roundtable included the racial wealth gap, best practices for social impact measuring and reporting, and strengthening stakeholder support for mission-driven banks. “Financial wellness and closing the racial wealth gap are at the core of what we do at the National Bankers Community Alliance and the National Bankers Association, and this Impact Assessment Tool only strengthens that work,” said Nicole A. Elam, Executive Director of the National Bankers Community Alliance, and President & CEO of the National Bankers Association. “As the voice for minority banking, we are enthusiastic about working alongside our partners to lead the conversation around driving and measuring impact.”

The racial awakening of 2020 brought increased attention to MDIs. As we seek to turn that moment into a movement, mission-driven banks can lead with their story of community impact to shape the social imagination around impact reporting. “What differentiates Minority Depository Institutions from other financial institutions is our impact. It’s in the best interest of our institutions to invest in impact research and to partner with the National Bankers Community Alliance and the National Bankers Association to collect the data that will shed light on our communities,” said Robert James, II, Board Chairman of the National Bankers Community Alliance and President & CEO of the Carver Financial Corporation.

The Roundtable included representation from MDIs and Community Development Financial Institutions, major banks, government, philanthropy, corporate, and research. Participating organizations included: Brookings Institution, Carver State Bank, Citi Foundation, City First Bank, Common Good Labs, Commonwealth National Bank, Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and Minneapolis, FDIC, Industrial Bank, John Hopkins University, JPMorgan Chase, Kellogg Foundation, Milken Institute, Moody’s, Mountain | Plains Native CDFI Coalition, PayPal, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Texas National Bank, UpMetrics, VISA, and Wells Fargo. Participants were excited about the Impact Assessment Tool, providing valuable guidance on methodologies and suggestions for future research areas. The Impact Assessment Tool and a report will be publicly released this year.

National Bankers Community Alliance (NBCA)

National Bankers Community Alliance (NBCA) is the nonprofit arm of the National Bankers Association (NBA), the leading voice for the country’s Minority Depository Institutions whose membership includes Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, and women-owned and -operated banks across the country. To continue NBA’s support of MDIs, the NBCA was founded to provide programs and services to support MDIs and the communities they serve to close the racial wealth gap. https://www.nationalbankers.org/alliance