OFN and HSBC Bank Deploy $25 Million Through CDFI Investment Fund
Caroline Valvardi
In August 2018, OFN and HSBC Bank USA established the Good to Grow CDFI Investment Fund (G2G Fund) to expand the flow of capital to small businesses, affordable housing, and community facilities nationwide. Recognizing the unique needs of CDFIs to drive impact in communities underserved by mainstream finance while also maintaining their own sustainability, OFN and HSBC Bank partnered to provide equity equivalent (EQ2) investments to OFN member CDFIs.
This past March, OFN and HSBC Bank fully deployed the $25 million G2G Fund. In total, 22 OFN member CDFIs active in HSBC Bank’s national retail network each received EQ2 investments of up to $2 million. With a special focus on serving small businesses, these CDFIs are now putting the money to work where it’s needed most.
“The Good to Grow Fund has been a terrific collaboration between OFN and HSBC,” said Morris L. Churchill, Jr., HSBC USA’s Head of Community Development & Sales Administration. “The amount of affordable, flexible capital the Fund was able to deploy in short order means that we’ve put our resources to work in the communities that most need them. I’m especially pleased with the Fund’s emphasis on small business lenders. Now more than ever, support of small businesses is critical, and the Fund is doing just that. HSBC is thankful for OFN’s vision and partnership.”
G2G Fund recipients are:
- Accion East
- Business Center for New Americans
- Community Capital New York
- Community First Fund
- Community Health Center Capital Fund
- Community Loan Fund of New Jersey (New Jersey Community Capital)
- Craft3
- Florida Community Loan Fund
- Genesis LA Economic Growth Corporation
- Grameen America
- Grow America Fund
- Leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund
- Main Street Launch
- Mercy Loan Fund
- Opportunity Fund
- PIDC Community Capital
- Primary Care Development Corporation
- ROC USA
- Self-Help Ventures Fund
- The Disability Opportunity Fund
- VCC Bank
- Working Solutions
Cumulatively, the 22 G2G Fund recipients have provided financing to more than 345,000 small businesses and microenterprises and have helped to create or maintain more than 380,000 jobs, with about 90 percent of clients served considered low-income, according to OFN’s annual member survey conducted in 2019. G2G Fund investments will continue to provide a boost to America’s small businesses and local economies hit hardest by COVID-19 and its far-reaching impact.
“We’re so grateful for HSBC Bank’s partnership these past two years with the Good to Grow Fund,” said OFN President and CEO Lisa Mensah. “The bank understands that CDFIs need flexible, low-cost capital to make meaningful investments in people and places underserved by traditional banks. As we look to recover long-term from the current COVID-19 economic crisis, as well as to address persistent racial inequity, CDFI partnerships with committed partners like HSBC Bank will drive real, sustained impact.”