Bank’s community development achievements honored at CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium
Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions has named Massachusetts-based Eastern Bank as the winner of its 2024 Community Impact Award. The announcement was made at the company's 28th annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium held Nov. 17-20 at the Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate, Fla. Award winners demonstrate the creativity, impact, and economic sustainability of their community reinvestment programs.
Eastern Bank was recognized for its Equity Alliance for Business program, designed to support underrepresented business owners, particularly women, entrepreneurs of color, LGBTQ+ as well as veterans or individuals with disabilities. Equity Alliance for Business offers specialized credit solutions, banking services, and entrepreneurial resources to help address systemic inequities and provide opportunities for diverse business owners to thrive.
“We are honored to recognize the achievements of Eastern Bank in winning this year’s Community Impact Award,” said Steve Meirink, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Financial & Corporate Compliance. “Their work in successfully enlisting resource partners who can provide small business counseling and expertise, including extensive technical assistance to help run or start a business, has proven to be an invaluable service in enabling program recipient enterprises to grow and contribute to the broader community.”
“Equity Alliance for Business combines Eastern Bank’s longstanding leadership in small business lending, where we are the #1 Small Business Administration lender in Massachusetts for 16 years running, with our deep commitment as a leading local bank to ensure all business owners in the communities we serve thrive,” says Quincy Miller, Vice Chair, President and Chief Operating Officer of Eastern Bank. He points to the program’s suite of offerings, including a Special Purpose Credit Program, and collaboration with colleagues across the bank and business support organizations as an important way of counteracting “the systemic inequities” that underrepresented business owners have faced in qualifying for access to capital.
“Through our research, we identified ways of how credit scores used in traditional underwriting standards could be adjusted to take into account other credit-related metrics, helping level the playing field while appropriately managing credit risk of those with low or ‘invisible’ credit scores, leading to notably positive outcomes,” he explained.
Since its inception, Equity Alliance for Business has generated dozens of referrals that have aided underserved businesses operating in the bank’s broader service area. This marks the second time Eastern Bank has been recognized for its community development achievements, having won the Community Impact Award in 2018 for its role in launching the Foundation for Business Equity, now known as Nectar Investments.
The Community Impact Award is sponsored by Banzai Inc., which provides financial literacy education at no cost for schools, parents, sponsors, and businesses.
