What is JPMorgan Chase's 5-year vision for the CDFI sector in the UK?
JPMorgan Chase believes that with the right capital and adequate capacity building, UK CDFIs could multiply their current lending volume by five. If appropriate commercial vehicles fall into place, this could unlock £1 billion in additional loans for 15,000 additional businesses over five years — a transformative scale-up for a sector that already reaches communities most banks overlook.
This ambition is far from abstract. In November 2024, Responsible Finance announced a £4 million capacity building initiative supported by JPMorgan Chase, designed to strengthen CDFI operations and help them deploy small business loans more efficiently. The initiative complements the British Business Bank's Community Enabled Fund, creating a capital-plus-capacity model: money to lend, combined with the operational infrastructure to lend it well.
JPMorgan Chase's conviction in this vision draws on deep precedent. The firm has spent over two decades supporting CDFIs in the United States, investing more than $2 billion in the sector. In the UK specifically, it has already provided over £1 billion in senior financing to SME lenders over the last five years, and its total UK philanthropy has reached £90 million since 2019. The 5-year CDFI vision is the next chapter of that sustained commitment.
The social dimension of the vision is equally striking. CDFIs currently direct 60% or more of their loans to deprived communities, 41% to women-led businesses, and 24% to ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Scaling lending by 5× would mean these underserved groups absorb a substantial share of that £1 billion — which is precisely why JPMorgan Chase frames this as inclusive economic growth, not just volume expansion. Hear the full conversation on Listenly to understand how this model works in practice.
"For economic growth to reach all areas of the country, particularly underserved or under-invested regions, it has to be intentionally inclusive."
— Daniel Davis, Deputy Director, First Enterprise · The Responsible Finance PodcastDaniel Davis joined First Enterprise on 2 January 2024, stepping into the role of Deputy Director with a clear mandate: improve operations and help the organisation serve underserved communities more effectively. His arrival came at a pivotal moment, as CDFIs across the UK began scaling their ambitions alongside new institutional partnerships.
His background spans digital transformation, operational improvement, and direct SME support — experience gained both by working inside businesses and by running his own ventures. That dual perspective — understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur while knowing how organisations must evolve internally — gives him a grounded view of what growing businesses actually need from lenders like First Enterprise.
On this episode, Davis speaks with particular authority on the practical realities of the capital-plus-capacity model: not just having funds to deploy, but building the systems, processes, and expertise that allow a CDFI to deploy them well. His voice represents the delivery side of JPMorgan Chase's 5-year vision — the organisations that will actually put £1 billion to work across underserved UK communities.