The U.S. Treasury will present Reuters on December 14 to boost funding for minority loans

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Author: Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice President Kamala Harris will announce major new funding to encourage loans to minority businesses and low-income communities on Dec. 14, a U.S. official said.

President Joe Biden’s administration wants to announce a “milestone” in its efforts to create a fairer economy for black, Latino, Asian, Native and other color communities at the 2021 Freedman’s Bank Forum, a Treasury spokesman said.

The forum began in 2016 under the auspices of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, when he named the General Treasury Annex Building “Freedman’s Bank Building.”

Abraham Lincoln founded Freedman’s Savings and Trust Co. http://freedmansbank.org in 1865 for newly emancipated black Americans to protect their profits, build financial security, and create family wealth. The bank helped raise around $ 57 million in savings and wealth for about 100,000 people and black organizations, paving the way for today’s minority minority depositors.

But the gap in racial wealth remains. U.S. data show that the typical white family has eight times the wealth of a typical black family and five times that of a typical Latino family.

On Tuesday, the Treasury will outline its strategies for channeling capital to the financial institutions of the depository community (CDFI) and minority depositors (MDI) to help minority-owned businesses and consumers to borrow, subsidize and tolerate low-income communities.

Harris and Yellen donated $ 1.25 trillion https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0228funds 863 for community development financial institutions in the White House in June, and will receive more funding on Tuesday.

The funds are part of the $ 12 billion planned for a $ 900 billion COVID-19 aid package approved by Congress in December 2020 and then addressed by Senator Harris in December 2020.

John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope, a nonprofit group working to end poverty, acknowledged that the Treasury’s efforts are “a step in the right direction,” but said much more work was needed to resolve decades of differences.

Doing so would boost the overall U.S. economy, he said, citing a Citigroup (NYSE 🙂 study estimates that discrimination against African Americans has reduced US $ 16 trillion since 2000.

The Treasury Department plans to emphasize that its programs, including children’s tax credit and emergency rental assistance, have enabled a more equitable recovery, and will highlight other steps to address racial inequality, the spokesperson said.