Join Partnership for Financial Equity

Join Partnership for Financial Equity: Connections, Best Practices, Thought Leaders

Partnership for Financial Equity helps financial institutions to stay current on all of the information needed to meet CRA requirements and reach customers, while helping to connect with the community organizations and programs operating in target neighborhoods.

To learn more about joining the Partnership for Financial Equity, complete the form below and read on for more information on benefits and dues.

Get CRA Credit

In accordance with State regulation, Partnership for Financial Equity’s activities, if benefiting the institution’s assessment(s) or a broader statewide or regional area that includes the institution’s assessment area(s), the Division of Banks will consider a state-chartered institution’s membership dues to Partnership for Financial Equity a qualified investment.  In-kind contributions to Partnership for Financial Equity, including the provision of technical assistance and expertise to our committees, are also a qualified community development service.

Partnership for Financial Equity Reach: Broad and Collaborative

With more than 1,000 representatives from banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, community organizations, public organizations, regulatory groups, trade organizations and others currently participating in and learning about Partnership for Financial Equity committee activities, members are connecting with the right people and the most important information in a meaningful way. Our inaugural Financial Equity Summit in 2002 brought together over 300 participants and featured some of the nation’s best experts and the Commonwealth’s best leaders as speakers and panelists on issues such as FinTech, Special Purpose Credit Programs, mortgage lending and small business lending.

Membership Benefits

Grow Institutional Reach

• Identify small business and home ownership assistance programs and resources that can help customers.
• Learn more about public and quasi-public gap financing programs and new initiatives that can help to expand institutional lending.
• Stay informed about emerging community development opportunities.
• Gain access to technical assistance and other resource providers.

Build Relationships

• Network and meet regularly with other area financial institutions.
• Broaden institutional relationships with local community development organizations and leaders.
• Build an expanded professional network of knowledgeable contacts in economic and small business development.

Impact the Industry

• Lend assistance to important community development initiatives such as Basic Banking for Massachusetts.
• Collaborate with other members to respond to emerging issues in the marketplace, such as the ever-changing regulatory environment.
• Support research on mortgage and small business lending patterns.  Small and medium-sized banks especially appreciate the availability of comparable data, minus the cost of an internal CRA research department.

Learn

• Stay informed about emerging community development issues.
• Obtain comprehensive, up-to-date information on small business lending and mortgage lending patterns across the state.

Share

• Gain perspectives on local market conditions in real-time from the full range of stakeholders.
• Share information with other lenders and service providers.
• Find a forum to raise new concerns, compare local experiences and share information on successful strategies.

Membership Dues

All of the Partnership for Financial Equity core activities are supported by annual dues payments from member financial institutions.  Our dues levels are on a sliding scale, based on asset size (see below).  Member dues are paid on a calendar basis; banks that join Partnership for Financial Equity for the first time mid-year pay a pro-rata portion of the year’s annual membership dues.

Dues Schedule

To learn more about joining Partnership for Financial Equity, contact the Executive Director, at 857-309-3096 or tcallahan@financialequity.net