Financial Innovations Roundtable
Annual Meeting
Download the Summary of the
12th Annual Financial Innovations Roundtable
Interim Report
Download the
Recommendations on the
CDFI Bond Guarantee Program
Book
New Book from the Carsey Institute: Capital Markets, CDFIs and Organizational Credit Risk, by Charles Tansey, Michael Swack, Michael Tansey, and Vicki Stein.
Click here to download (359 pages).
Click here to purchase from Amazon.com ($35)
Click here to download the report: "Financial Innovations Roundtable: Developing Practical Solutions to Scale up Integrated Community Development Strategies"
History
Created in 2000, the Financial Innovations Roundtable, housed at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, creates cross-sector partnerships among conventional and non-traditional lenders, investors, and markets to provide low-income communities with increased access to capital and financial services. The Financial Innovations Roundtable (FIR) is not only a think tank, it is a “think-do” tank. Some of the most successful ideas developed at the FIR have been implemented, resulting in new tools, policies and practices (see below) that have resulted in millions of dollars being directed into investments in affordable housing, small and minority businesses, community facilities and other community development efforts.
The Financial Innovations Roundtable is an action-driven, implementation focused policy-level initiative, comprised of highly respected financial leaders who work and collaborate on the defined tools and needed resources to implement a scale solution for the community development finance field. FIR participants, represent a powerful assemblage of senior bankers, financiers and non-profit leaders from a diverse range of institutions—including conventional financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, investment firms, public agencies, ratings agencies, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), foundations, pension funds, religious institutions, and universities.
The full FIR group convenes annually to participate in work sessions to address financial needs in low-income communities and vet potential financial tools for the CDC / CDFI community as well as define specific capital access policy issues that open up sources of financing and improve financial performance in the community development field. Each year 2 to 3 scalable and sizeable projects are advanced by the FIR.
The FIR process:
- Identifies the immediate financial challenges, redundant costs and scale shortfalls inherent in a network of community development organizations and creates cross-sector partnerships to develop practical solutions.
- Drills down to two – three identifiable initiatives and research activities, working to remove the barriers between conventional and non-traditional lenders, investors, and markets, and
- Within a 12-18 month framework, begins to create products and services that provide low-income communities with a scalable, transparent and replicable process for increased access to capital and financial services.