• Print
  • Email

ProfitWise News and Views, May 2007
Financial Access and Insurance: A Preliminary Description of Factors That Affect Immigrants

Introduction

Providing financial services to immigrants is a growing business for bankers, and a growing area of study for policymakers and researchers. While still an emerging field, most of the attention to financial access thus far has tended to focus on core banking products such as bank account ownership, mortgage loans and services that immigrants tend to use more often than native-born, such as wire transfers, that banks must market more aggressively than in the past to attract (some) immigrant groups. Insurance is another financial tool that, like accounts and mortgages, helps households accumulate and maintain assets, deal with unexpected financial contingencies, avoid a bad credit rating (a common result, after a medical crisis, among households having inadequate or no health insurance) and otherwise have an opportunity to participate in the financial mainstream. Yet insurance has received comparatively little attention in discussions about immigrants who do not or cannot take full advantage of common financial products and services. As is the case with many other financial products, proportionately fewer immigrants have property/casualty, life or health insurance than the native-born.

CEDA: Celebrating 40 Years of Building Community Partnerships to Improve Lives

Introduction

After President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty” in 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act was drafted, and numerous organizations quickly formed to wage battle in communities around the country. The Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, Inc. (CEDA) was one such group. Established in 1966, CEDA began at the grassroots level – in schools, churches, storefronts and community centers. It is now one of the largest private nonprofit organizations in the U.S., with over 200 offices throughout Cook County. With a staff of 700, over 4,500 volunteers and more than 40 programs, it serves 230,000 clients per year with a budget of over $100 million.

Ways to Work: Putting Working Families Behind the Wheel and Heading toward a Stronger Financial Future

The demand for cars is strong in many areas of the country where public transportation fails to meet the needs of working families. Long commutes make it hard to get to work on time and take workers away from their families and homes. Using a Ways to Work loan to purchase a reliable vehicle makes it easier for workers to hold down a job, advance into better-paying jobs in different locations or pursue additional education or training.

Gift Cards - Facts and Cautions Regarding a Widely Used Financial Product

Introduction

Gift cards have grown in popularity for many reasons. They are a convenient option for any occasion requiring a gift, and a step up from giving cash. Some receivers (or observers) may consider a gift card an impersonal gesture, but the cards are practical in that the receiver obtains something he/she will likely use.

In Brief: Statewide CDFI Launches Midwest Expansion to Meet Nonprofit Capital Needs: IFF Closes First Loans in Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa

The Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF), a statewide community development financial institution (CDFI) in Illinois, is expanding to serve nonprofit organizations in the greater Milwaukee area, Missouri, Iowa and Indiana. Created in 1990, the nonprofit IFF provides belowmarket capital financing up to $1 million for nonprofit organizations that serve low-income or special-needs populations. Its expansion comes after 17 years of serving nonprofits throughout the State of Illinois, helping organizations buy land and buildings, renovate, construct, maintain and repair facilities, and buy equipment and vehicles.

Subscribe Now

Register to receive email alerts when new issues are published.

Subscribe

Having trouble accessing something on this page? Please send us an email and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 230 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois 60604-1413, USA. Tel. (312) 322-5322

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.

Please review our Privacy Policy | Legal Notices