The CDFI Fund provides grants through the Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) program, where banks make deposits into mission-driven credit unions. Hope Credit Union serves one of the nation’s most impoverished regions, a place from which wealth has been extracted for generations, and where families have a limited ability to build savings and other assets. Consequently, HOPE’s ability to secure local deposits is constrained. The BEA program is a critical resource to import the capital needed to increase economic opportunities for communities and families across five Deep South states (Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana).
BEA and other similar initiatives lower HOPE’s overall cost of funds, which enables HOPE to reinvest more deeply in local communities. With these resources, HOPE directs capital into communities to finance small businesses, housing, healthcare, and other vital needs.
CapNexus was instrumental in HOPE’s partnership with eligible CDFI Partners, helping to bring almost $2 million in BEA deposits in 2020. HOPE’s Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Mary Bruce Alford added, “The BEA program allows for a productive partnership between banks and CDFIs. These targeted deposits align resources with need so that individuals and communities in our region have more pathways to climb the economic ladder.”