Ecority Projects U.S. Credit Unions Could Deploy $107B In Clean Energy Financing
Ecority, a nonprofit that has built a national coalition of credit unions and state-chartered green banks, is projecting that U.S. credit unions could finance 5.3 million projects for a total of $107B in just six years by leveraging the industry’s existing branch network and digital channels along with potential grant funding.
Ecority’s coalition includes regional and state credit union leagues representing thousands of community lenders in every U.S. state and territory. Its grant application, which received the full endorsement of NAFCU and CUNA, included an aggregate of $14.87B from the National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator Fund of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The coalition is poised to catalyze the U.S. credit union sector to rapidly deploy clean energy projects at an unprecedented scale nationwide, with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities.
“Through industry collaboration, credit unions have an opportunity to become national leaders in green lending and include borrowers who may not otherwise qualify,” says Chuck Purvis, Interim CEO & Board Member of Ecority. “Ecority plans to use grant funding to create a loan guaranty fund, provide technical assistance and provide capitalization grants enabling credit unions to autonomously lend for more eligible projects at lower rates.”
Interested credit unions may express their interest in participating and potentially becoming subrecipients of grant funds by visiting ecority.org/register.