As part of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, Apple has committed $25 million to eradicate systemic racism in the US and empower entrepreneurs of colour.
California-based fintech CNote has already funnelled a round of insured deposits to mission-driven financial institutions such as Education Credit Union in Texas, First Southwest Bank in Colorado, and Kaua‘i Federal Credit Union in Hawai‘I, to name a few.
With the CNote platform providing deposits across a network of vetted financial institutions, it aims to plug a gap for corporate and other institutional investors that want to support financially underserved communities, while generating returns on cash allocations.
CNote moves client deposits into FDIC- and NCUA-insured accounts across the wide network of institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designated (LID) credit unions, and minority depository institutions (MDIs).
These committed funds increase the deposit base of mission-driven banks and credit unions that serve low- to moderate-income people as well as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) communities.
This helps fuel affordable housing and small business loans, providing an alternative to predatory lending. Apple, and others such as Mastercard, PayPal and Netflix, which are also part of the CNote initiative, receive quarterly reports with details on which institutions have received deposits and the populations benefiting from investments.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy, and social Initiatives, says: “We’re committed to helping ensure that everyone has access to the opportunity to pursue their dreams and create our shared future. By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.
Catherine Berman, CEO of Cnote, adds: “Corporations have an enormous opportunity to help communities across the U.S. thrive by changing the way they manage their cash reserves, and we’re excited to see Apple at the forefront of this emerging trend. Through our platform, we have already started moving Apple deposits into low-income communities and communities of color.”