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A bank with a prominent presence in Connecticut has joined forces with 19 other financial institutions to launch a new lending program that seeks to adopt anti-racist underwriting approaches and increase lending commitments to support people of color.
The program, called the Underwriting for Racial Justice lender pilot program will facilitate training and discussions among the 20 selected lenders about challenges, successes and ideas for racially-equitable underwriting practices and increasing capital access and wealth for people of color.
Berkshire Bank, based in Boston, and Upstate New York regional lender NBT Bank are the only two financial institutions in the pilot program with substantial Connecticut presences. Other participants include Texas National Bank, Boston-based regional Eastern Bank and Washington State Employees Credit Union, along with several community loan funds and CDFIs.
Traditionally, lending underwriters look unfavorably on factors like smaller down payments, lower credit scores and higher debt-to-income ratios, which are more prevalent among nonwhite borrowers due to the long hangover of historical racial discrimination and, in some cases, continuing discrimination.
In addition to the racial home ownership gap, many scholars and advocates contend that difficulties minority entrepreneurs have in accessing credit and capital are at the heart of Greater Boston’s longstanding racial wealth gap.
“There are fairer methods to determine an applicant’s likelihood and ability to repay their loans. Our Lender Pilot Program will help lenders develop more equitable underwriting approaches, like evaluating credit histories instead of using hard credit score cutoffs. The result is high-performing and more racially diverse portfolios,” Erin Kilmer Neel, executive director of the Beneficial State Foundation, said in a statement.
Beneficial State Foundation, part of the California-based community development bank Beneficial State Bank, has organized the program and has been tasked to collect loan-level data, analysis and results for the program, which will then be shared to the 20 banks and credit unions in order to drive change in their lending practices.
Berkshire was one of the original members of the working group that generated the new Underwriting for Racial Justice pilot program and had run some of its own pilot efforts to expand access to credit for entrepreneurs of color.
“Data continues to demonstrate that business owners from marginalized communities have difficulty gaining access to capital. At Berkshire, we bring our mission to life by constantly evaluating how we support entrepreneurs and small business owners. In addition to participating in the Beneficial State Foundation’s Underwriting for Racial Justice Lender Pilot Program, Berkshire Bank currently offers a Futures Fund line of credit designed to provide marginalized communities with more equitable access to capital,” Berkshire Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Angela Dixon said in a statement.
Kilmer Neel said that 40 financial institutions applied to be a part of the program, but only 20 were selected that “demonstrated remarkable qualities that truly resonated with our mission.” Applicants not included in the LPP will still have access to program guides, templates and other resources.
