On that hot day, President Clinton called on banks to do more to meet the needs of their communities, to do more under a revamped Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and to help set up or support Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, such as Hope, partnering with the newly created CDFI Fund at Treasury.
And he called on Congress to pass the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) to provide tax credits to individuals and corporations for making equity investments in Community Development Entities (CDEs) in places such as the Mississippi Delta. This, in turn, would help establish and grow local businesses, create jobs, increase local purchasing power, and generate more local investment opportunities.