Altana Social Impact Partnership announces first investment
The Altana Social Impact Partnership (ASIP) has made a substantial investment In My Community Bank (MCB).
ASIP focuses on place-based investing to create impact in areas such as social housing, energy transition, ethical lending and other investments that improve the lives of UK residents. The fund actively seeks out investments which promote local and regional levelling up objectives.
MCB, headquartered in London, is an online only national credit union focusing on borrowers with limited access to mainstream lending.
“ASIP were in synch with our mutual ethos from day one, clearly sharing our core vision of expanding access to credit for underserved communities,” says David Hendrick MCB’s CEO. “They applied both a commercial and an ethical lens to their work, quickly grasping the drivers of our business to come up with a funding proposal that supported delivery of our strategic objectives.”
MCB’s loan book is tilted to the most deprived regions with even distribution across England, Scotland, and Wales. This has grown 60% in the past nine months and is now over £166m. Each £1m of investment enables MCB to write £25m of new lending.
Says David Hendrick: “This funding rapidly made an impact, supporting responsible growth of our business and improving the financial health of our membership and our community as a result. We look forward to a long partnership with ASIP. “
“We are delighted to have made this cornerstone commitment to MCB,” said Laurence Christie and Mohsin Jamal, ASIP’s Investment Directors, “MCB is already making a difference in deprived areas all over the UK and our investment can help it to achieve even more.
“This is just the first step in ASIP’s commitment to investing with purpose. We are currently exploring a pipeline of over £100m of investment opportunities and hope to announce our next transactions over the forthcoming months.”
For further information please contact: media@altanawealth.com
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