NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New York Life, America’s largest1 and most admired2 mutual life insurer, today announced a $50 million investment in Enterprise Community Loan Fund (ECLF), Enterprise Community Partners’ U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). ECLF provides flexibly designed loans to improve access to affordable housing for low- and moderate-income communities across the United States.
New York Life’s 15-year fixed income debt investment will primarily support Enterprise’s Equitable Path Forward program focused on the advancement of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (“BIPOC”) developers in the real estate and community development industry. The program invests directly in diverse developers to fill the capital gap created by decades of systemic racism, strengthens development businesses through non-financial support, and increases the talent pool and creates career pathways for future leaders in the real estate industry.
Additionally, New York Life’s investment will support Enterprise’s overall business activities. This includes making loans to community-based nonprofit organizations and mission-aligned for-profit organizations that, in turn, develop housing for low-and moderate-income persons and/or promote economic development by financing small businesses, charter schools, and community facilities.
“With our national breadth and local depth, Enterprise is uniquely positioned to invest in BIPOC developers who create and preserve affordable homes in diverse communities,” explained Lori Chatman, president of Enterprise Community Loan Fund. “With New York Life’s support, ECLF will continue to narrow the capital gap attributable to longstanding racial disparities and provide equitable access to the capital resources required to gain power, autonomy, and impact for these developers and the communities in which they work.”
Founded in 1990, ECLF has invested more than $2 billion in community projects supporting the creation or preservation of more than 123,000 homes, 600,000 annual health care visits, 16,000 education seats and 4.5 million square feet of community space. The mission-driven organization has an issuer credit rating of A+ (S&P) and AA+ (AERIS). With $424 million in assets under management, ECLF is one of the largest CDFIs in the country.
This is the latest investment by New York Life’s $1 billion impact investment initiative announced in April 2021. The initiative is focused on addressing the racial wealth gap by investing in underserved and undercapitalized communities over the next three years with a focus on supporting small businesses, affordable housing, and community development.
“This ECLF investment affords us the opportunity to partner with an established market participant and positively impact the affordable housing sector,” said Martin King, managing director and head of impact investments at New York Life. “Through New York Life’s impact investment initiative, we will continue to partner with diverse asset managers, CDFIs, and other mission-driven organizations. Our long-term impact investment strategy is to develop large-scale solutions and investment structures that aim to deliver broad and inclusive economic outcomes linked to job growth, health and wellness, and personal and household advancement.”
ABOUT NEW YORK LIFE
New York Life Insurance Company (www.newyorklife.com), a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States1 and one of the largest life insurers in the world. Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life has the highest financial strength ratings currently awarded to any U.S. life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies3.
Footnotes
1
Based on revenue as reported by “Fortune 500 ranked within Industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual),” Fortune magazine, 6/2/2021. For methodology, please see http://fortune.com/fortune500/.
2
As reported by “Fortune 2021 World’s Most Admired Companies ranking within Insurance (Life and Health),” Fortune magazine, 2/1/2021. For methodology, please see https://fortune.com/franchise-list-page/methodology-worlds-most-admired-companies-2021/.
3
Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 9/30/2021: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).
