BNY Mellon’s commitment will support Lafayette Square’s mandate to invest in low-to-moderate income (LMI) areas.

BNY Mellon has announced it is investing $10 million with Lafayette Square, an investment firm that seeks to create opportunities to support people and communities in low-to-moderate income areas while generating positive returns for investors.

BNY Mellon’s contribution will fund Lafayette Square’s flagship investment strategy, which aims to deploy over 51% of invested capital in underserved areas or to borrowers who provide substantial employment to low- and moderate-income individuals.

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“Contributing to the resilience and vibrancy of communities is important to us,” said Jayee Koffey, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Global Head of Enterprise Execution. “We are excited about collaborating with Lafayette Square given their data-driven approach to finding investment opportunities that make a positive impact.”

Recent examples of BNY Mellon leveraging its diversified platform to empower communities include:

• In June 2023, BNY Mellon and MoCaFi, a Black-founded fintech platform leading financial empowerment for traditionally underserved communities, announced a strategic alliance to extend payment options to unbanked and underbanked communities in the U.S.
• BNY Mellon made history in May 2023 with minority, veteran- and woman-owned investment firms coming together to serve as joint-bookrunning managers for a $500 million debt offering.
• BNY Mellon established BOLD Shares, which allows clients to make a direct social impact with their liquidity investments, in this case helping support students of Howard University and boost retention rates. This investing initiative has grown to over $4.3 billion in assets as of April 14, 2023.
• BNY Mellon supports community banks including; South Carolina-based Optus Bank, a federally designated Minority Depository Institution, to expand its capacity, market reach and community reinvestment opportunities with BNY Mellon products, such as Account Validation Services. As of June 2023, BNY Mellon has made an $8 million deposit to support Optus’s mission of investing in underserved communities.