The Federal Reserve Board on Friday modified the Main Street Lending Program to provide greater access to credit for nonprofit organizations such as educational institutions, hospitals, and social service organizations. As detailed in term sheets released today, the Board approved two new loan options to provide support to a broad set of nonprofit organizations that were in sound financial condition prior to the pandemic.

"Nonprofits provide vital services across the country and employ millions of Americans," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said. "We have listened carefully and adapted our approach so that we can best support them in carrying out their vital mission during this extraordinary time."

Based on public feedback to proposals released for comment on June 15, the minimum employment threshold for nonprofits was lowered from 50 employees to 10, the limit on donation-based funding was eased, and several financial eligibility criteria were adjusted...

The “Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District,” report commonly known as the Beige Book, is published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector. An overall summary of the twelve district reports is prepared by a designated Federal Reserve Bank on a rotating basis.

The Chicago Fed Survey of Business Conditions (CFSBC) is a survey of business contacts located in the Seventh Federal Reserve District. The Chicago Fed produces diffusion indexes based on the quantitative questions in the survey that are released at 10:00 a.m. ET on scheduled days, normally in the second week of each calendar month.

The Chicago Fed’s National Financial Conditions Index (NFCI) provides a comprehensive weekly update on U.S. financial conditions in money markets, debt and equity markets and the traditional and “shadow” banking systems. Because U.S. economic and financial conditions tend to be highly correlated, we also present an alternative index, the adjusted NFCI (ANFCI). This index isolates a component of financial conditions uncorrelated with economic conditions to provide an update on financial conditions relative to current economic conditions.

The NFCI and ANFCI are updated on a weekly basis at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and cover the time period through the previous Friday. When a federal holiday falls on a Wednesday or earlier in the week, the NFCI and ANFCI will be updated on Thursday.

Most respondents saw substantial declines in revenues compared with what they expected at the beginning of 2020. This led to large reductions in employment and capital spending. A majority of those who had seen lower-than-expected revenues stated that demand had stopped dropping and had either bottomed out or was picking up. Nearly all respondents had made changes to their operations to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and most reported that the changes had small effects on their costs and capacity. Most respondents had some, but not strong, concerns about the financial health of their companies. Respondents had a wide range of expectations for when U.S. economic activity would return to where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, but 75% said they expected it would do so by the end of 2021.

In late April, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago collaborated with the executive associations of the chambers of commerce in its five District states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin) to conduct a survey on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on chamber members’ businesses. This survey was based on the methodology of the broader Chicago Fed Survey of Business Conditions (CFSBC). The new survey asked questions about the impact of the outbreak so far and expectations for the coming months. The survey was voluntary, and we primarily heard from small businesses in industries heavily affected by Covid-19.

The main results are as follows:

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John Lothian News is pleased to announce a 2020 virtual event for the MarketsWiki Education World of Opportunity series. The one-day event will be held on Wednesday, July 22 from 1:30 to 3:30 PM CDT.

The online only event is FREE to registered participants. Click HERE to register.

The lineup of speakers includes PEAK6 Founder Jenny Just, Greenwood Project Co-Founder Bevon Joseph, Chicago Federal Reserve Vice President Alessandro Cocco, OCC Vice President of Talent Acquisition Andre Buckles, and author, former regulator and lawyer Eileen Flaherty.

Just  will address why she has stayed in the fintech industry for over 25 years and how challenging the status quo makes her company better.Joseph will talk about the effort in the Chicago financial markets to bring racial equality to the industry through an innovative intern program for inner city youth. Cocco will speak about “Will climate change impact your career in finance?” Buckles will talk about how...

This article describes the issues businesses and, thus, employees may face as a result of the wave of retiring baby boomers, sometimes referred to as the “silver tsunami.” The article also considers the role of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and recent Small Business Administration (SBA) legislation in encouraging banks to finance business purchases in certain instances. In addition, the SBA provides an additional tool for leverage against defaults from loans to employee-owned business startups and conversions. The SBA Main Street Employee Ownership Act of 2018 expands the authority of the SBA to guarantee loans for qualified employee trusts of a small business to purchase the stock of that business.