“Action for Racial Equity” represents unprecedented effort to leverage Citi’s core business capabilities and Citi Foundation philanthropy to help address racial equity and justice in the U.S.
Citigroup Inc. - Citi
September 23, 2020

Commitments

PolicyProgramPractice
  • Citi successfully updated the Citi Environmental and Social Risk Management Policy for project-related financing to strengthen due diligence processes for environmental justice and social impacts on communities of color.

Read more about Citi’s commitments here.

  • Citi is expanding Community Lending products and programs while leveraging its mortgage portfolio and capital to further enable homeownership. This includes Citi’s HomeRun program, which requires low down payments and removes mortgage insurance requirements for eligible borrowers with low to moderate incomes, and its Lender Paid Assistance program, which provides eligible homebuyers a credit of up to $5,000 to lower closing costs to make buying a home more affordable.
  • Citi issued its first affordable housing bond with a notional value of $2.5 billion, the largest-ever social bond from an issuer in the private sector. Citi utilized a syndicate of minority and women-owned broker-dealers, with Black-owned broker-dealers comprising 75% of the joint-lead managers. The use of proceeds from the bond will finance the construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of quality affordable housing for low-and moderate-income populations in the U.S.
  • The financial group issued a $2.5 billion bond with an underwriting syndicate exclusively comprised of Black-owned broker-dealers, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to increasing racial equity in the capital markets and broader financial services industry.
  • Citi piloted a municipal finance modeling training program, in collaboration with Citi and minority-owned, municipal broker-dealers and advisors, to support talent development, promote networking, and deliver access to industry-leading bankers in the field.
  • As part of Citi’s commitment of $50 million in additional impact investing capital for Black entrepreneurs, 6 of the first 16 Citi Impact Fund investments were directed to Black founders, accounting for 18% of the Fund’s equity invested to date.
  • Citi spent $875 million with diverse suppliers in 2020, including $354 million with Black-owned businesses alone. On track to increase Citi business procurement spend with certified diverse suppliers to $1 billion annually by 2023.
  • In addition to the previously announced plan to expand the U.S. Consumer Bank’s community lending team and its network of correspondent lenders to support Black and Hispanic homeownership, Citi continues to invest in its digital mortgage capabilities to better reach all communities, including underserved markets.
  • Beyond Citi’s Business Initiatives, the Citi Foundation recently announced a $1 million grant to MENTOR to propel racial justice and equity efforts and $3.5 million in support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and young Black students and leaders, with grants to UNCF and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Partnerships

Deloitte & National Bankers Association

Through collaboration with Deloitte and the National Bankers Association, Citi established a technical assistance program to support MDIs’ talent development, enhance technology, and expand business networks.

National Urban League

Access to Citi products and platforms in collaboration with community and municipal partners to support communities of color was expanded by launching a collaboration with the National Urban League to serve Black households by expanding access to the Citi® Access Account Package that includes low-cost savings and checking products with Urban League affiliates in Philadelphia, Pa.; Seattle, Wash.; Hampton Roads, Va.; and St. Louis, Mo.

City of Los Angeles

Citi signed a contract with the City of Los Angeles to launch a school-based children’s savings program called Opportunity LA, which will provide no-cost college savings accounts for students in LA’s Unified School district.

City of San Jose

Citi collaborated with the City of San Jose to provide no-cost college savings accounts for local public schools through the Citi Start Saving® platform as part of San Jose Aspires.

Highlights

“Action for Racial Equity was meant to be a three-year goal, but our teams have matched the urgency these issues deserve, making incredible progress towards that goal in just over six months,” said Jane Fraser, Citi CEO. “We know that many are rightfully calling on banks and other big companies to put real action behind their commitments. Today, we’re sharing what we’ve done to date to show how Citi is committed to real change, and to be clear and transparent about how far we have to go. We are determined to do everything we can to help close the racial wealth gap in our communities and continue to do the work to become an anti-racist institution.”

“The financial inequality and other systemic problems people of color face will not go away until we confront them head on—and that’s what we’re working towards here at Citi,” Mark Mason, Citi CFO, said. “Citi is focused on ensuring that people of color have the same access to the financial tools and resources that benefit other groups. Doing so is a critical component of the work that needs to be done to close the racial wealth gap.”

In September 2020, Citi supplemented another $50 million through the Citi Impact Fund to invest in women and Black founders. Listen to how Founder and CEO Erica Plybeah of MayHaul was able to partner with Citi to support her business endeavors: