Investments

The Minneapolis company recently advised a nonprofit on a $30 million issuance that will provide financing to developers building multifamily housing and community facilities. It includes a framework, which the bank intends to deploy again, for informing investors on how the money is being used.

Blend Labs, a lending platform for financial companies, raised $360 million in an initial public offering price at the top of a marketed range.

Citigroup will let retail customers bet on stocks without paying fees as the bank tries to expand its wealth business in the face of fierce competition from Silicon Valley ventures, discount brokerages and big-banking peers.

Novus, a startup whose app helps consumers make environmentally conscious purchases, is using application programming interfaces provided by the two companies to expand quickly. The effort shows how open banking can extend the reach of small companies and create new business lines for larger ones.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled she’ll prod multilateral development banks to rein in their lending for fossil fuels, part of a global effort to make the financial system greener.

As attitudes about corporate responsibility evolve, regulators will expect banks to take a more proactive approach to environmental, social and governance issues. That means going beyond assessing climate-related risks to incorporate a focus on ethics, culture, inclusion and customer protection.

Jennifer Eastes is tasked with spearheading and accelerating environmental, social and governance efforts at the Cleveland-based company.

The issues associated with environmental, social and governance policies cut across all the traditional concepts of risk facing bank executives and will endure for years.