This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

We have been tracking Asian Banks for some time. See: Bullish on Asian Banks Originally posted on the Street Insight section of thestreet.com 2/28/2006 4:35 PM EST and Still Bullish on Asian Banks Recently, there has been renewed interest in this sector. We commented for an article by S&P analysts Kelsey Bartlett and Carolyn Duren posted Monday, 02 July 2018 11:52 AM ET, some of which is reproduced below: Deals are heating up among Asian-American designated banks, with two of the nation’s prominent institutions announcing deals since April. In its second deal since 2013, Hanmi Financial Corp. is acquiring Houston-based SWNB Bancorp Inc. Meanwhile, RBB Bancorp is making a play for Brooklyn, N.Y.-based First American International Corp. — its third deal since 2013. The two Los Angeles-based banks remain interested in diving into new markets with high populations of Asian Americans, management said. Hanmi expects the combined entity to have $5.7 billion in total assets, whil...

        At the SCLC Annual Convention, Washington, DC, July 13, 2018. Left to right - Mr. Kebede, Virginia Tech, Mr. Owusu, Franklin and Marshall College, Dr. Steele, Executive Director, SCLC, Mr. Ye, Johns Hopkins University, and Mr. Brand, University of Maryland. On Friday, July 13, 2018, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) held a panel discussion on the state of black wealth in America. The panelists were Samantha Sanders, Director of Government Relations at the Economic Policy Institute, David D. Rixter, Principal  of HCR Consulting L.L.C. and William Michael Cunningham, Founder, Creative Investment Research. The panel was moderated by Kevin B. Kimble, Esq., DC Bureau Chief of SCLC. William Michael Cunningham speaking at the SCLC Convention The panelists discussed a myriad of reasons for the pervasive black-white economic gap to mark the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission that identified racism as the reason for the black...

Our model of Federal Reserve policy estimates the probability that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates. Our July 3rd Summary shows that the probability of the US Federal Reserve increasing the federal funds rate is 90.53%. While our model needs to be adjusted, as noted below, we remain confident in these results. The first forecast adjustment element are the previous hikes. Recall that in March, 2018, our model predicted a rate increase with a 92.3% probability . The rate increase following the June 12 – 13 FOMC meeting decreases the probability of subsequent rate increases, if only slightly (90.53% vs 92.30%). One precedent for the Fed raising rates in this manner came in 1994, during the Clinton Administration, when the Fed raised rates from February to May at a 25 basis point pace. Interest rates increased from 3.25% to 4.25% in 4 months (FED, 2018). Each successive rate increase adds less to policy impact. Given that the Fed has  raised interest rates two ...

Maggie Lena Walker was the first female bank president of any race to charter a bank in 1902. Black women have continued down this path of entrepreneurship. According to one report, "the number of businesses created by black women in the United States alone is up more than 460% over the last 20 years, making them the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the nation." Of course, we've known this for some time, and have the track record to prove it. We launched  MinorityFinance.com  in 1998 and noted that 65% of the inquiries from the site came from Black women. While others have come along after our launch, we remain active and at the forefront. See:  Small Business Financing, Black People and Venture Capital https://youtu.be/gXGBEUoxHHs The key issue then, and now, is money: "according to the Diane Project, black female founders are only able to raise an average of $36,000 in venture funding, while start-ups owned mostly by white males have received on aver...