Citi grants to two local lending circles that serve immigrants

By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: September 29, 2011

Citi's community-development arm is providing a total of $125,000 to two Philadelphia economic-development groups to help foster small-scale entrepreneurship in fast-growing immigrant communities, the financial-services giant plans to announce Thursday.

Two nonprofits, Entrepreneur Works and Finanta, will use the money to work with lending circles - informal groups of 10 to 20 business owners who make weekly contributions of money that is lent to group members on a rotating basis, until each participant has had a turn.

The Citi grant will not be used to make loans "but to help manage the loans, deliver business assistance, help them [the lending circles] stabilize and grow," said Leslie Benoliel, chief executive of Entrepreneur Works, which will focus on African and Caribbean immigrant communities in the Woodland Avenue corridor of Southwest Philadelphia.

A key to the program, called Circles of Success and conceived as a two-year pilot that could be replicated elsewhere, is that the two organizations will report repayment information to credit bureaus, building participants' credit histories and credit scores to help them enter the financial mainstream.

The ultimate goal is to reduce poverty and joblessness.

Finanta, which will work with Spanish-speakers, has already overseen a lending circle that had 17 members. Each contributed $1,800 for a total of $30,600, said Luis Mora, Finanta's president. He said the group had 100 percent repayment.

Citi potentially gains a new customer base because loan proceeds will be deposited in Citi accounts and the bank will process loan repayments.

Separately, Mayor Nutter is scheduled to announce in an event at Finanta the provision of $2.3 million to community-development corporations, technical-assistance programs, and corridor-cleaning groups, with a focus on immigrant-owned businesses.

Contact staff writer Harold Brubaker at 215-854-4651

or hbrubaker@phillynews.com.

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