Assets at banks certified by the Treasury Department as community development financial institutions have more than tripled in the past six years, a report says.
The assets of the 54 largest such U.S. banks went from $2.9 billion in 1999 to $10.1 billion last year, according to the study. It was released Tuesday by the Community Investing Working Group, a project of the Social Investment Forum Foundation and Co-op America.
Community development banks use the money invested in them to make loans to affordable-housing developers, homeowners, and small businesses in communities with low to moderate income, as well as to providers of social services such as child care.
"Community investing remains one of the fastest-growing areas in the world of socially responsible investing and that trend is likely to continue … in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," said Donna Katzin, who chairs the working group.
Assets over all in CDFIs - including credit unions, loan funds, and venture capital funds - grew more than fivefold in the last decade, to $19.6 billion in 2005.
