Our Purpose
The Julian Bond Institute for Financial Equity Research is an initiative of the Center for Responsible Lending. We exist to produce rigorous, representative research at the intersection of race and finance — grounded in the lived realities of the communities that mainstream financial research has too often treated as an afterthought.
By 2050, more than half of all Americans will identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, or multiracial. The communities set to become America's majority are the same ones the financial system has historically underserved. JBI was founded to change that — before the window closes.
To produce research that illuminates the financial barriers facing communities of color, builds the evidence base for policy change, and holds the financial system accountable to the communities it must serve — with the rigor of academic research and the urgency of a civil rights mandate.
The Mission
The financial system of 2050 will look nothing like the one we have today — and that is an opportunity. JBI exists to help build what comes next: working alongside community organizations, academic researchers, policymakers, and financial institutions to design products, practices, and policies that actually work for the communities that will make up the majority of America's financial future. The data is clear. The will is there. What we need now is the research to show the way.
From the Launch
Inaugural Event Photos
"The humanity of all Americans is diminished when any group is denied rights granted to others."
JBI bears Julian Bond's name because the work of financial equity is inseparable from the civil rights work he devoted his life to. Bond understood that economic exclusion and political exclusion reinforce each other — and that dismantling one requires confronting both.