Portfolio Guidelines
According to a report issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
“The growth of minority populations and projected increases in their buying power provide significant opportunities for retail growth by financial institutions.”
In addition, recent reports spotlight the role minority-owned banks play. We believe this represents an opportunity to create new, more relevant and more meaningful market based efforts to promote and preserve minority-owned financial institutions.
Recent newspaper and magazine articles have cited investment opportunities in the financial services sector. We believe demographic and financial trends provide an opportunity for investors to maximize financial and social return.
In managing MBF, LP we recognize that our responsibility does not end with seeking top
quartile returns or with minimizing risk. We are launching the Fund to help mitigate the impact
of economic and social discrimination, to address social issues and to promote healthy
communities. These efforts will be successful only if these concerns are brought from the
margins to the center of investment decision making.
We recognize that addressing social concerns while pursuing financial objectives is an
imperfect process. We trust that MBF, LP investors, management, directors, and employees
share our belief that the development of healthier minority communities, and through them a
healthier U.S. economy, depends upon efforts to address these concerns using market based
institutions and tools in a manner consistent with the best practices of democratic capitalism. We
have developed a set of statistical and investment management tools, the Fully
Adjusted Return® Methodology, that aid us in doing so.
MBF, LP will use investment research developed by Creative Investment Research, Inc. (CIR)
and published in the Minority Bank Monitor. Since 1989, CIR has published ratings derived from
social and financial information relating to women and minority owned financial institutions.
Creative Investment assigns ratings based on the financial strength and social performance of financial institutions. In addition, MBF, LP may seek to assist portfolio investment companies in using a set of proprietary high social
and financial return investment vehicles, including a financial instrument designed to address both predatory
subprime lending and homelessness.
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