(2011-10-20) Starbucks Microlending

StarBucks is getting into MicroLending in hopes of Job Creation. He knew that small businesses created most new jobs, but that many small businesspeople couldn’t hire because they had lost access to credit after the financial crisis. He thought about Starbucks’s involvement in microlending programs in some of the countries where it bought coffee. He wondered if there was some way that that could be applied to small business lending in this country... It didn’t take long for Starbucks to find the perfect financial partner: Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFI-s. These are lenders, mostly under the radar, that specialize in underserved communities. Most, but not all, CDFIs are nonprofit, and their loan default rates are extremely low. This may be good for SmallCo-s, but I doubt it will create jobs.