The Financial Law Forum Episode 4 - Advancing Financial Equality: Congressional Appropriation of Billions to Small Financial Institutions Can Narrow the Wealth Gap

Episode 4: Advancing Financial Equality: Congressional Appropriation of Billions to Small Financial Institutions Can Narrow the Wealth Gap

In this episode, Tracee E. Davis and Tonya M. Esposito, partners in Seyfarth’s ESG and Consumer Finance Litigation groups, are joined by Walter Davis who is a founding member of Peachtree Providence Partners Holding Company, LLC, a private investment and consulting firm which focuses on small to middle market businesses.

Over the last few months, the COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected small and minority-owned businesses across the country, many of which found the Payment Protection Program inaccessible. In response, Congress has appropriated $9 billion dollars in funding through the Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP) for distribution through a national network of community development and minority-owned financial institutions known as CDFIs and MDIs. With this record-breaking amount of financing potentially available to small and minority owned businesses through CDFIs and MDIs, we discuss the ECIP and advancing equal access to capital in a two-part series. In this first episode, we discuss the role of CDFIs and MDIs in the financial markets.