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Racism and the Economy: Focus on Financial Services

November 16, 2021
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET | 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. CT
Virtual video event presented by all 12 District Banks of the Federal Reserve System

Racism and the Economy: Focus on Financial Services

This is the 10th installment in our virtual event series. This session will examine structural racism in our financial services system and its impact on the economy. We will survey historical and present-day barriers to traditional financial services that exist for people of color, which can drive them into expensive and sometimes exploitative alternatives. This session will envision new products and practices, prioritizing people and places that have experienced chronic disinvestment and exclusion. It will explore ways to address root causes that can result in more equitable access to financial services and help close these gaps. Leaders from financial institutions, consumer protection organizations, research institutions, and others will explore ways that we can fully support consumers and financial service providers to ultimately help facilitate an economy that works for all.

Speakers:

  • Tom Barkin, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
  • Raphael Bostic, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
  • Camille Busette, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Governance Studies, Metropolitan Policy Program, and Director, Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative, Brookings Institute
  • Bill Bynum, CEO, Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union, and Hope Policy Institute
  • Nancy Farghalli, Executive Producer, Marketplace (moderator)
  • Terri Friedline, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Michigan
  • Esther George, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
  • Robert James II, Chairman, National Bankers Association, and President and CEO, Carver Financial Corporation
  • Neel Kashkari, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
  • José Quiñonez, Founder and CEO, Mission Asset Fund
  • Lisa Rice, President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance
  • Lisa Servon, Kevin and Erica Penn Presidential Professor and Department Chair, City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
  • Lakota Vogel, Executive Director, Four Bands Community Fund
  • Abbey Wemimo, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Esusu Financial
Camille Busette and Bill Bynum participated with Terri Friedline in the November 16 event’s Plenary Panel.
Barriers to basic financial services perpetuate persistent economic gaps
"Racism and the Economy" event examined structural racism in our financial services system and its impact on the economy
Read the event recap article

Event Details

12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET | 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. CT
Virtual video event presented by all 12 District Banks of the Federal Reserve System


Additional Resources

We have curated a collection of additional resources that focus on the topics of racism, financial services, and their effects on the economy.

Pondering Payments: Challenges of Reaching All Americans

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Credit, Income, and Inequality

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Fintech, Racial Equity, and an Inclusive Financial System

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Explore the full resource list ›




Event Agenda

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

12:00 p.m. – 12:05 p.m. ET Introduction & Opening Remarks

Esther George, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

12:05 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET Plenary Panel

William Bynum, HOPE
Camille Busette, Brookings Institution
Terri Friedline, University of Michigan

Moderator:
Nancy Farghalli, Marketplace

12:30 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. ET Grounding the Work Panel

Lakota Vogel, Four Bands Community Fund
Robert James II, National Bankers Association and Carver Financial Corporation
Lisa Servon, University of Pennsylvania

Moderator:
Nancy Farghalli, Marketplace

12:45 p.m. – 1:10 p.m. ET Policy Pitch Panel

Jose Quiñonez, Mission Asset Fund
Lisa Rice, National Fair Housing Alliance
Abbey Wemimo, Esusu Financial

Moderator:
Nancy Farghalli, Marketplace

1:10 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET Response Panel and Discussion

Lakota Vogel, Four Bands Community Fund
Robert James II, National Bankers Association and Carver Financial Corporation
Lisa Servon, University of Pennsylvania

Moderator:
Nancy Farghalli, Marketplace

1:30 p.m. – 1:55 p.m. ET Presidents Panel

Esther George, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Thomas Barkin, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Raphael Bostic, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Moderator:
Nancy Farghalli, Marketplace

1:55 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET Closing Remarks

Neel Kashkari, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis


About the series

Understanding the implications of structural racism in America’s economy and advancing actions to improve economic outcomes for all.

Racism forms the foundation of inequality in our society. It limits opportunity for people of color and threatens the health of our economy. While the global pandemic has intensified racial and economic disparities, the killing of George Floyd has galvanized people from all walks of life to address the systems and structures that enable and perpetuate these outcomes.

Hosted by all 12 District Banks of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, “Racism and the Economy” is a virtual series that brings together community, business, and academic leaders to examine the economic impact of racism and advance bold ideas and concrete actions to achieve an economy that makes opportunity available to everyone.


Presenter Information

Camille Busette photo

Camille Busette Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Governance Studies, Metropolitan Policy Program, and Director, Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative, Brookings Institution

Camille Busette is a Brookings Institution senior fellow in governance studies with affiliated appointments in economic studies and the metropolitan policy programs. She is the director of the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative, focusing on issues of equity, racial justice, and economic mobility for low-income communities and communities of color.

Prior to joining Brookings, Busette was an executive at the World Bank, where she led its financial inclusion innovation arm. She was the inaugural CEO of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Financial Education, where she was a member of the policy and executive management teams. Busette has held executive positions at PayPal, Intuit, and NextCard and is a public governor of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-regulatory agency for the broker-dealer industry. She holds a Ph.D. and master’s in political science from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bill Bynum photo

Bill Bynum CEO, Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union, and Hope Policy Institute

William (Bill) Bynum is CEO of HOPE, a family of organizations that provides financial services and engages in advocacy to combat the extent to which factors such as race, gender, birthplace, and wealth limit one’s ability to prosper. Since 1994, Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union, and Hope Policy Institute have generated over $3 billion in financing that has benefited nearly 2 million people in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Bynum began his career in North Carolina building groundbreaking financing and community development programs at Self-Help and the NC Rural Center.

Bynum’s board service includes the Aspen Institute, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Prosperity Now, Churchill Capital IV and V, Black Vision Fund, Mississippi Today, and William Winter Institute. He is an adviser to Bank of America, E Pluribus Unum, NEON, and Wells Fargo. A recipient of the University of North Carolina Distinguished Alumnus Award, Bynum is a Towsley policymaker in residence at the University of Michigan Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, Henry Crown fellow, Emerson Collective Dial fellow, and Salzburg Global fellow. He previously chaired the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Advisory Board and the Treasury Department’s Community Development Advisory Board and served on the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty.

Nancy Farghalli photo

Nancy Farghalli Executive Producer, Marketplace

Nancy Farghalli is the executive producer of Marketplace, a daily National Public Radio program hosted by Kai Ryssdal that reaches over 12.5 million people weekly. As the executive producer, Farghalli oversees all daily production and content of Marketplace, guiding the show’s series, specials, and regular programming.

She has led production of live events including Marketplace’s 2012 election tour and the 25th anniversary road show tour. She has also collaborated with the BBC, Slate, New York Times, and ProPublica on joint investigative and immersive series, focused on health care economics, immigration, and wage politics.

Farghalli worked on the Emmy award-winning series “Big Sky, Big Money,” a PBS Frontline documentary about money in politics, produced in partnership with Marketplace. She is also a past recipient of a McCloy fellowship in journalism for the study of immigration economics and politics in Europe.

Terri Friedline photo

Terri Friedline Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Michigan

Terri Friedline is an associate professor of social work and a faculty associate with poverty solutions at the University of Michigan. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. Friedline conducts research in pursuit of a more equitable and just financial system, including the availability of financial products and services, financial technologies, and public banking options. She is the author of Banking on a Revolution: Why Financial Technology Won’t Save a Broken System, which challenges the belief that fintech can redress the financial system’s deeply rooted racist policies and practices. She has served as a research fellow at New America and as an appointed member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Academic Research Council.

Robert James II photo

Robert James II Chairman, National Bankers Association, and President and CEO, Carver Financial Corporation

Robert James leverages his experiences in banking, law, real estate development, and consulting at Black-owned Carver Financial, the holding company of Carver State Bank in Savannah, Georgia. Under his leadership, Carver doubled its capital in the past year and since 2017 has won $80 million in new markets tax credits from the U.S. Treasury—the first in Georgia for a community bank or entity outside Atlanta—and created hundreds of jobs in distressed communities across the state. James is chairman of the National Bankers Association and a member of the boards of the Community Development Bankers Association, the National Black Bank Foundation, and the National Bankers Community Alliance. He also serves as executive director of Carver’s nonprofit community development financial institutions affiliate, Catalyst Development Corporation. James also led the first ever all-Black bank syndicate to finance a project for a major American sports franchise, the 2021 refinancing of the Atlanta Hawks’ practice facility. He holds a bachelor’s in political science from Howard University and a J.D. from Harvard University.

José Quiñonez photo

José Quiñonez Founder and CEO, Mission Asset Fund

José Quiñonez is the founding CEO of Mission Asset Fund, a San Francisco-based community financial institution. Under his leadership, MAF has become an award-winning organization offering timely and culturally relevant financial products and services to low-income and marginalized immigrant communities across the country. Since 2008, MAF has provided $55 million in zero-interest loans and direct cash grants, paired with actionable financial education, to more than 100,000 people.

For his vision and creativity, Quiñonez received a MacArthur Genius Award, the James Irvine Leadership Award, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the San Francisco Business Times Most Admired CEO Award. Previously, he served as the inaugural chair for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s consumer advisory board. Currently, he chairs the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s consumer advisory board and is a member of the US Bank, Experian, and Capital One consumer advisory boards.

He received a bachelor‘s in Chicano studies from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s in public affairs from Princeton University.

Lisa Rice photo

Lisa Rice President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance

Lisa Rice is the president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, the nation’s only national civil rights agency solely dedicated to eliminating all forms of housing discrimination. NFHA is also the trade association for more than 200 member organizations throughout the country that work to eliminate barriers in the housing markets and expand equal housing and lending opportunities. NFHA provides a range of programs to affirmatively further fair housing, including community development, neighborhood stabilization, training, education, outreach, advocacy, consulting, and enforcement initiatives.

Rice is a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights board of directors, Center for Responsible Lending board of directors, JPMorgan Chase consumer advisory council, Mortgage Bankers Association’s consumer advisory council, Freddie Mac affordable housing advisory council, Quicken Loans advisory forum, Bipartisan Policy Center’s housing advisory council, FinRegLab’s machine learning advisory board, and Berkeley’s Terner Center advisory council.

Lisa Servon photo

Lisa Servon Kevin and Erica Penn Presidential Professor and Department Chair, City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

Lisa Servon is the Kevin and Erica Penn presidential professor and City and Regional Planning Department chair at the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously professor of management and urban policy at the New School, where she also served as dean at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. She conducts research in the areas of urban poverty, community development, economic development, and issues of gender and race. Specific areas of expertise include economic insecurity, consumer financial services, and financial justice. Servon holds a bachelor’s in political science from Bryn Mawr College, a master’s in history of art from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in urban planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Lakota Vogel photo

Lakota Vogel Executive Director, Four Bands Community Fund

Lakota Vogel is the executive director of Four Bands Community Fund, a Native community development financial institution focused on entrepreneurship, full utilization of trust land for asset development, and increasing financial services access on the Cheyenne River Reservation in north-central South Dakota. As executive director, Vogel has been involved in all aspects of raising capital and deploying funds to borrowers. She has over 11 years’ experience raising and deploying capital to Native American communities. Prior to her role as executive director, she served as the fund’s assistant director and supported fund development strategies.

Vogel is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. She obtained her master’s in social work from Washington University in St. Louis with the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies.

Abbey Wemimo photo

Abbey Wemimo Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Esusu

Abbey Wemimo is the co-founder and co-CEO of Esusu, a financial technology platform that reports rental data to build tenants’ credit scores while helping property owners increase revenue and lower evictions. Prior to Esusu, he founded Clean Water for Everyone, a global social venture providing affordable access to clean water for more than 250,000 people in six countries. He also founded a data analytics company designed to gather machine-readable data on nongovernmental organizations operating in Africa. Previously, Wemimo was a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PwC, where he worked on more than 20 deals valued at over $50 billion. He also gained valuable experience working with Accenture, European Commission, and Goldman Sachs. His work has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Quartz, Fortune, Teen Vogue, Vice, Black Enterprise, and Cheddar. In 2016, he was selected as a Queen’s Young Leader by the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.


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