How does the British Business Bank's Community Enabled Fund complement the JPMorgan Chase programme for CDFIs?
The British Business Bank has committed £150 million of its own capital through the Community Enabled Fund, directly de-risking loans made by CDFIs. JPMorgan Chase's £4 million philanthropic initiative — delivered via Responsible Finance — operates on a different but complementary layer: it funds the operational capacity that CDFIs need to actually absorb and deploy that public capital effectively. One provides the money to lend; the other ensures CDFIs have the systems, processes and expertise to use it at scale.
The two programmes were designed with this complementarity in mind. The British Business Bank's approach addresses the capital supply side, and it is already exploring a phase two that would introduce a commercial vehicle to attract private investment alongside public funds — creating a more sustainable, long-term flow of capital into the CDFI sector. If those vehicles materialise, the sector's own five-year vision points to £1 billion in additional lending reaching 15,000 more businesses.
JPMorgan Chase's role is to make sure CDFIs are ready for that moment. By investing in capacity — staff skills, digital tools, operational processes — the firm's philanthropy ensures that an influx of public or private capital does not simply sit unused because institutions lack the infrastructure to deploy it efficiently. As Colleen Ebbett of JPMorgan Chase explains in the episode, this model draws on over two decades of CDFI support in the United States, where the firm has invested more than $2 billion in the sector. You can explore the full conversation on Listenly.
"For economic growth to reach all areas of the country, particularly underserved or under-invested regions, it has to be intentionally inclusive."
— Colleen Ebbett, JPMorgan Chase · The Responsible Finance PodcastDaniel Davis joined First Enterprise on 2 January 2024, bringing a background that spans digital transformation, operational improvement and direct SME support. Unlike many voices in the CDFI space who come from a purely financial or policy background, Davis has worked within businesses and run his own ventures — giving him firsthand understanding of the pressures and opportunities that small business owners actually face. He arrived at First Enterprise with a specific mandate: improve the organisation's operations and accelerate its mission of serving underserved communities across the UK. This combination of hands-on commercial experience and deep operational focus makes him particularly well placed to speak to what CDFIs need to do internally — in terms of systems, processes and expertise — to make the most of the capital now flowing from programmes like the British Business Bank's Community Enabled Fund and JPMorgan Chase's capacity-building initiative.