4th Annual Summit:

Financial Equity Summit 2025

Our biggest and best yet! PFE’s 4th annual Financial Equity Summit took place on October 7th via webinar and October 8th in-person in Lawrence. More than 300 people attended across the two days, including over 120 at The Vault in downtown Lawrence.

 

This event was approved by ABA Professional Certifications for 7 CRCM, CFMP credits. Certification holders must report these credits at https://aba.csod.com. This event will appear under Approved Non-ABA CE as: Partnership for Financial Equity/ 2025 Financial Equity Summit. 

 

 

 

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Event Recap   

Summit Recap

Our two-day Summit, with Presenting Sponsor LendingClub, took place on October 7-8, 2025 and featured:

  • A new Bank On Massachusetts coalition to be staffed by PFE;

  • Highlights from a groundbreaking statewide survey on trust in banking;

  • Three Elevating Equity partnership awards;

  • Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, author of The Double Tax; and so much more…

Julieann Thurlow, CEO, Reading Cooperative

Day One: PFE Board chair Brook Ames, SVP, General Counsel & Chief Risk Officer of Leader Bank opened by welcoming everyone to a conversation that is as important today as it was thirty-five years ago when our organization was founded.

Day Two: Julieann Thurlow, CEO of Reading Cooperative Bank and recently named one of ‘The Most Powerful Women in Banking’ by American Banker, launched our in-person session in Lawrence at The Vault.

“I do believe that now is the time to engage with the agencies, to advocate for a better way.  CRA is still broken.  Mortgage lenders without branches and online deposit takers, CashApp and Venmo avoid CRA while taking business away from the financial institutions that support our communities.”  Read on for a summary of each panel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous Annual Summits