Note from the Publisher:  As financial technology progresses, it has the potential to leave behind many in underdeveloped communities.  This is one of the great dichotomies that we often ponder at FintekNews world headquarters.  Innnovation/disruption is inevitable and can't - and shouldn't - be stopped and we LOVE featuring fintech innovation and entrepreneurs, but what happens to those left behind?  We recently featured Steve Ely from eCredable in our weekly 3 Questions section.  Steve - formerly president of Equifax - now works in this platform to help "credit invisibles". 

Likewise, we applaud the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) who, via their Wells Fargo NEXT Awards, make investments in community development financial institutions (CDFIs), seving underbanked communities throughout the US.  OFN presents the NEXT Awards in partnership with Wells Fargo and Prudential and support from the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.  This year's just released award winners included:

  • Appalachian Community Federal Credit Union (Gray, TN)
  • Rio Grande Valley Multibank Corporation (Brownsville, TX)
  • Lower Valley Credit Union
  • Texas Community Capital
  • The Housing Fund


"PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance today awarded nearly $4 million to improve responsible financial products and services to consumers in disinvested communities. Through investments in five community development financial institutions (CDFIs), the NEXT Awards aim to transform how the underbanked and unbanked in rural, urban, and immigrant communities access capital. It is the nation’s largest awards program for CDFIs.

The winning CDFIs have demonstrated how technology, strategic partnerships, and new consumer finance products can address the more than 60% of Americans struggling with financial health and a growing number of households across the country who are turning to high-cost financial products and services because they do not have access to responsible ones."

Read Full Press Release at GlobeNewswire