CHICAGO — According to a news release, the Center for Financial Services Innovation is awarding its second round of funding to companies and individuals who design practical strategies to service underbanked consumers and offer them asset-building opportunities. The center will invest in for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations.
The total funding pool will be between $750,000 and $1 million.
The second round of awards will be granted for service applications that focus on breaking new ground, leveraging partners synergistically and those that demonstrate potential to become profitable or financially self-sustaining. The awards also will be based on how the expected service will help low-income consumers build wealth. CFSI is particularly interested in several promising strategic areas, including stored-value card solutions and remittances with ties to asset-building, workplace-based strategies, bank-nonbank partnerships, alternative credit scoring and self-service delivery channels.
"CFSI has been a wonderful partner to us, connecting us to incredible resources, people and partners as we develop and implement our new initiative," said Dr. Denise Fairchild, president and chief executive of CDTech, one CFSI’s inaugural grant recipients. CDTech received seed money to assist in the development of an enhanced stored-value card and Web-based credit counseling service for low-wage workers in Los Angeles.
Jeff Jaffee, Citicorp’s national director for Fair Lending, said, "CFSI is the hub for anything that is happening in the U.S. market that is focused on the underbanked."
