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The Green Finance Podcast Ep. 6: The fight against financial discrimination with BetaBank CEO Seke Ballard
According to US law, lending discrimination occurs when a lender makes a decision during the loan application process based on a person’s race, sex, religion, familial status, nationality, age, receipt of public assistance or disability.
Although fair lending laws are designed to protect borrowers from financial discrimination, it still happens – many people and businesses are treated differently, even in today’s technological world. A disproportionate majority of those refused capital in traditional banks are historically underrepresented and underserved groups.
In episode 6 of the Green Finance Podcast, host Iulia Ciutina explores this topic with Seke Ballard, who is the founder and CEO of BetaBank, a digital Black-owned bank built to serve SMBs equally and fill the gap left behind by traditional banks.
The latest briefing
Green Finance Briefing: What's a sustainable business strategy in banking?
Every executive needs to start thinking about strategies that will capture a long-term competitive advantage from the net-zero transition. In banking and finance, this means a comprehensive awareness of what your business is enabling.
This was the main takeaway from last week’s Banking on the Planet Conference, where some of the industry’s top professionals shared their insights on the role of finance in a sustainable economy.
We talked about this topic from all angles – from sustainable investments and ESG, to consumer banking, to reporting and emissions reduction.
The reality today is that we are nowhere close to where we should be in terms of understanding how valuable it is to be prepared for the future. There is a huge educational component that needs to continue developing, especially in the senior management of financial and banking organizations. A sustainability-oriented culture has yet to take hold in finance.
Read more (exclusive to Outlier members)
Just look at the charts
1. Visa's revenue breakdown
2. The metaverse real estate boom turns into a bust
Today's stories
Square Loans originated $1 billion in Q2
Square Loans originated $1.01 billion in Q2, up from $756 million in Q1. Block's CFO Amrita Ahuja said that the company is using the discipline it maintained on risk with Square Loans with other growing segments of its business. The fact that its business loans are short duration has been key to that success. (deBanked)
Goldman discloses probe into US credit card division
Goldman Sachs' credit card business is being investigated by the CFPB over a range of billing and payments practices. While Goldman made no mention of its partnership with Apple in the filing, most of the bank’s $11.84 billion in card loans through the second quarter were from the Apple Card. (CNBC)
Plastiq plans SPAC merger with Colonnade in move to go public
Plastiq, a B2B payments platform for the SMB economy, is planning to go public via a merger with Colonnade Acquisition, a SPAC. The combined company will have an implied enterprise value of $480 million. (PYMNTS)
BlackRock teams up with Coinbase in crypto market expansion
Coinbase is partnering with BlackRock to help some of the asset manager’s institutional clients connect to Coinbase Prime, allowing them to buy and sell Bitcoin. The partnership will help BlackRock add digital currencies as an asset class for the first time. (Finovate)
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