Diversity and equality

To help stop a cycle of systemic racism, bankers need to focus on advancing Black employees to leadership positions and create long-term relationships with Black-owned businesses.

Ray McGuire, one of Citigroup’s top investment bankers, has been vocal about his ideas for improving education and access to health care in low-income and minority neighborhoods.

The unit as of September had 20% more clients than a year earlier. Liu, who is head of North America for Citi Private Bank, explains the changes she’s made to help her group attract and serve millennials, Gen Z, Asian Americans and families.

Banks need to be inclusive at the highest levels, and men in the C-suite need to play an active role in that transformation, says Operation HOPE’s John Hope Bryant.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's overhaul of its Qualified Mortgage standard is alarming free-market advocates who say it will precipitate a return to easy credit and higher defaults and could disproportionately harm minorities.

Jane Fraser, who in February will become the first female CEO of a Wall Street bank, said during a Women in Banking event hosted by American Banker that she will be “the first of many, many more” to come.

Television executive Ryan Glover, rap star Killer Mike and civil rights icon Andrew Young have launched a digital bank for Black and Hispanic consumers called Greenwood Financial.

The company says it plans to originate 40,000 mortgages for Black and Hispanic households and finance 100,000 affordable rental units over five years.

Federal Reserve officials were challenged Wednesday to make big policy changes to combat economic and racial inequality. In response, the presidents of the Atlanta, Boston and Minneapolis reserve banks pledged to shake up some long-held practices.

Any regulator or bank should build from a foundation of diversity, dignity and respect, says Grovetta Gardineer, the agency's head of national bank supervision policy.

New rules on shareholder submissions of proxy proposals could help banks fend off demands to disclose more pay data, cut financing to fossil fuels companies and adopt other reforms.

The Bond Buyer's Rising Stars Week continues as three members of the newly minted class -- Moody's Investors Service senior analyst Adebola Kushimo, Stifel director Roberto Ruiz, and Fieldman, Rolapp & Associates senior vice president Rachel Chang-Kwei -- join moderator Andrew Belinfanti-Knight, a managing director at UBS and a member of the inaugural Rising Stars class of 2016, for a discussion on diversity and inclusion in municipal finance.

The bar to prove discriminatory patterns is so high that plaintiffs would have slim odds of winning lawsuits against housing providers.

The initiative, backed by Vice Chairman Anne Finucane and Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag, is Bank of America’s eighth environmental, social and governance-themed bond.

The American Association of Bank Directors is setting up an on-the-job training program to help banks reach a younger and more diverse group of prospective employees.

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing, the Massachusetts Democrat asked Powell what the Fed is doing to reduce inequality along economic lines in the U.S.

Bostic, the first Black Fed president in the central bank’s 106-year history, said systemic racism is an economic as well as a moral issue.

Bankers should cast a wider net for applicants and hold listening sessions with their minority employees if they truly want equality.

The agency’s report on mortgage data submitted by lenders identified persistent disparities between white borrowers and minorities in denial rates and pricing. Some observers say the bureau should have been more explicit as the nation wrestles with systemic racism.

An international coalition led by Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan has proposed a framework for assessing how well big corporations are meeting the environmental, social and governance expectations of investors who value stakeholder capitalism.