Several institutions recently invested in a $46.1 million note offering by Community Reinvestment Fund, a non-profit organization serving community-based lenders that help low-income borrowers by connecting the lenders with capital resources.
Frank Altman, president and chief executive of Minneapolis-based CRF, said the organization is developing ways of using institutional investment markets to aid community-based lenders. CRF purchases loans from community-based lenders and then securitizes the loans, allowing investors to purchase notes. Mr. Altman said 80% of the money CRF raises comes from institutional investors that buy senior notes from securitized transactions.
Investors in the most recent note offering, which closed in November, included AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co., CRA Fund Advisors, the $12.5 billion General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, Evanston, Ill., and the $4.9 billion Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Pension Fund, Minneapolis.
Standard & Poor's gave $26 million of the $46.1 million offering a AAA rating — a first for CRF's community reinvestment notes and the first of its kind the agency rated.
