Dear reader,
Welcome to the latest edition of The Forum File. In this edition, we are highlighting our firms’ work to increase access to banking and financial services in local communities across the country.
We hope you enjoy reading this edition and please do not hesitate to share your feedback.
Kevin Fromer, President and CEO, Financial Services Forum
Penny For Your Thoughts
Shannel Heath, Community Manager at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
How does JPMorgan Chase connect with local communities?
At JPMorgan Chase, we value the relationships we build with our clients and strive to best assist the local communities in which we operate. The community manager role helps us interact more effectively with different communities across the country.
As a community manager for JPMorgan Chase in Cincinnati, I work to help increase access to resources, financial health tools and services, particularly in underserved communities in our area. I understand firsthand the challenges of achieving one’s financial aspirations and have worked hard to help make banking and personal finance less intimidating for our clients. Community managers help build trust with members of the community by hosting different community events, financial literacy workshops and by engaging people inside the bank. That’s why it is also important that all our community managers live in the communities we serve.
What tools do community managers at JPMorgan Chase have to help individuals create financial health?
Banking and personal finance can be an overwhelming topic for people of all ages and backgrounds, especially those from underserved communities. Community managers offer free and public workshops that cover various personal finance topics such as opening a bank account, building a budget, saving for a down payment and improving credit health. Additionally, we help educate people on important products and services, such as Chase Autosave, a digital tool that automatically transfers money from a customer’s Chase checking account to their savings account.
How does JPMorgan Chase’s Racial Equity Commitment fit into its connection with local communities?
In October 2020, JPMorgan Chase committed $30 billion to advance racial equity. As part of this commitment, we have continued to outline how we are advancing our commitment and providing updates to our stakeholders. Hiring community managers is an important part of advancing this commitment and reaching goals related to increasing homeownership and affordable housing; growing and strengthening small businesses; and improving access to banking in Black, Hispanic and Latino communities.
To reach these goals, our bank is opening additional community center branches that are designed to collaborate with local organizations to offer free skills training and space for small business pop-ups. In 2021, the bank hosted some 1,300 financial health workshops across the country, reaching more than 36,000 people. Additionally, 47 of the 100 new branches opened by JPMorgan Chase in 2021 are located in low- to moderate-income communities. JPMorgan Chase representatives and community managers have mentored more than 1,000 Black, Hispanic and Latino small business owners.
We are working to close the racial wealth gap. For me, that all starts with a single customer. If I’m focused on that customer, I’m doing my job.
Value Add
According to new research from J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, Black and Hispanic Americans prefer to have more control over their investments and care more about the social impact of companies they are investing in. J.P. Morgan surveyed more than 2,000 Americans this year to understand what motivates – or prevents – them from getting invested.
The J.P. Morgan Wealth Management Diverse Investor Study found that 59% of Black Americans and 57% of Hispanic Americans want to take an active role in selecting the stocks, bonds or funds that make up their investment portfolio, compared to 46% of White Americans. According to the study, Black and Hispanic Americans also care more about the social impact of the companies they’re investing in, and it’s important that their investments:
- are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)-owned, started, and/or operated (70% and 46%, compared to 27% of White and 31% of Asian),
- have a positive environmental impact (72% for both Black and Hispanic, compared to 55% of White and 57% of Asian),
- are women-owned, started, and/or operated (60% and 48%, compared to 30% of White and 40% of Asian),
- promote gender and racial equity and diversity (66% and 54%, compared to 35% of White and 42% of Asian)
Despite volatility and uncertainty, most investors are not concerned about market decline. The study found that overall, the majority of investors are concerned about rising inflation and interest rates (88%), would not be concerned about a 20% dip in their portfolio (69%), and automate their investments on a regular basis (58%). Additionally, the study found that women are optimistic about their financial situation, with 59% of women saying their financial situation is better now than five years ago, compared to 62% of men. However, women are taking a more cautious approach than men, with 45% of women describing their investing strategy as cautious, compared to 33% of men.
Readers can learn more about the J.P. Morgan Wealth Management Diverse Investor Study findings here.
Capital Gains
What we’re doing in Washington
In a new video, the Forum highlighted the strength and resiliency of the nation’s largest banks and their contributions to the economy featuring key quotes and clips from federal regulators.
Our Two Cents
Research from the Forum
The BankNotes Blog Spotlighted:
- The substantial contributions of Forum members in supporting small businesses and the economy.
- How Forum members, as global banks that have deep expertise in foreign markets, are uniquely positioned to support large, U.S. companies competing abroad and contribute to their success on the world stage.
- Forum members’ work financing our nation’s transition to a cleaner and more renewable energy future while also working to ensure that today’s energy’s needs can be met effectively and efficiently.
Checking the Balance
Members in the news
Bank of America announced the launch of a Small Business Down Payment Grant Program to drive business growth and help create generational wealth opportunities for minority and women business owners. The program provides down payment grants on SBA 504 and 7(a) commercial real estate loans. Launching in select markets with plans to expand in 2023, the program will extend credit to historically disadvantaged small business borrowers and provide support to make purchasing commercial real estate more affordable.
The Banker recognized BNY Mellon with four awards for the firm’s innovative work to streamline and transform transaction processes. The awards include 2022 Global Transaction Bank of the Year, Transaction Bank of the Year for North America, as well as top honors for Payments and for Trade Finance. Treasury Services received honors in the payments category for the second straight year for its ongoing work to transform the real-time and digital payments space.
Two years after Citi launched its Action for Racial Equity commitment, the firm surpassed the $1.1 billion investment goal in strategic initiatives working to help close the racial wealth gap. Since the launch, Citi has made important progress. Recent highlights include launching a special purpose credit program that will expand income eligibility and distribution of lending solutions to serve more diverse consumers, enlisting three minority depository institutions to take part in a $1.23 billion syndicated corporate loan and five Black-owned firms to syndicate a $2.5 billion bond issuance, and expanding the Citi Impact Fund to $500 million.
Goldman Sachs invested half a million dollars in The Future Economy Lab, a joint lab between Grantmakers for Girls of Color and SecondMuse Capital. Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women’s investment will support Black girls and gender-expansive youth age 13 to 24, as well as industry experts, in co-creating and co-designing financial tools to advance racial equity and inclusive growth.
Morgan Health, a business unit within JPMorgan Chase, announced a $20 million investment in LetsGetChecked, a global health care solutions company that provides clinical tools to conveniently and easily manage patients’ health from home. The LetsGetChecked platform plays a key role in reaching historically underserved individuals who often face significant financial or logistical barriers to routine and recommended testing. The investment aims to scale availability of accessible at-home health care solutions for early diagnosis, disease prevention, care management.
Morgan Stanley announced the eighth cohort of the Multicultural Innovation Lab. The in-house accelerator program for technology and technology-enabled startups targets companies with multicultural or women founders or other C-suite members. Now in its sixth year and with 69 participating companies to date, the program is expanding globally for the first time, with participating companies in both the U.S. and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
State Street CEO Ronald O’Hanley, along with President and Head of Investment Services Lou Maiuri, were named to the HERoes 2022 Top Advocate Executives list for their work in driving inclusion for women across the business. Yvonne Garcia, Chief of Staff to State Street Chairman and CEO, and Donna Milrod, Executive Vice President of State Street Corporation, were named to the Top Women Executives list.
Wells Fargo invested $7.5 million in a new initiative launched by Local Initiatives Support Corporation Houston and the Harris County Homeownership Collaborative to expand homeownership opportunities for Black, Hispanic, and other underserved individuals and families. The donation comes from Wells Fargo’s Wealth Opportunity Restored Through Homeownership, or WORTH, initiative, a $60 million national effort to address systemic barriers to homeownership for people of color.