Our inaugural Financial Equity Summit featured an all-star lineup of speakers, panelists and moderators all focused on one word – equity. Speakers focused on issues of mortgage lending, small business lending, Special Purpose Credit Programs and FinTech before a two-day combined audience of 312 participants from financial institutions, community-based organizations and government agencies.

Keynote speakers were Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chief of Membership, Policy and Equity at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition; Lisa Rice, CEO of National Fair Housing Alliance; Grace Lee, Regional President of M&T Bank; and Samir Goel, Co-founder, Esusu.

Panelists on our mortgage lending session were Elliot Schmiedl, Massachusetts Housing Partnership; Symone Crawford, Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance; Alia Fierro, US House Financial Services Committee; Leslie Reid, Madison Park Development Corporation with Michelle Meiser from Cambridge Trust moderating.

The panel discussion on Special Purpose Credit Programs was moderated by Jason Andrade of Compass Working Capital and featured Abby Nguyen-Burke, Eastern Bank; Ken Willis, FHLB of Boston; and Morgan Williams, National Fair Housing Alliance.

On Tuesday our opening panel discussion was on Small Business Lending with Glynn Lloyd, Mill Cities Community Investments; Gerardo Espinoza, Local Enterprise Assistance Fund; Ili R. Spahiu, Small Business Administration; Carrie Bernstein, UMass Donahue Institute with Tom Golden from Rockland Trust moderating.

We closed with a panel discussion on the promise and pitfalls of FinTech with moderator Juan Bonilla from the United Way Mass Bay leading panelists Lauren Saunders, National Consumer Law Center; Louis Caditz-Peck, LendingClub; Mohammed Dastigir, Mass Mutual; and Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey, SpringFour.

We thank all of our sponsors for making this inaugural Summit possible. Arbella Insurance Foundation was presenting sponsor. Eastern Bank was a Summit Convener. Santander was Keynote Speech Sponsor. Summit Organizers were LendingClub, M&T Bank, Massachusetts Housing Partnership, Needham Bank, Rockland Trust, and Silicon Valley Bank. Summit Supporters were Capital One Bank, Enterprise Bank, The Life Insurance Community Investment Initiative, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, and Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association. Summit Panel Sponsors were Cambridge Trust and Leader Bank.