Insurers Ante Up In Charity Efforts
NU Online News Service, Dec. 17, 2:06 p.m. EST?Sixty-five member companies of The Financial Services Roundtable, including 10 property-casualty insurers, contributed $1.2 billion to charity last year, and made $70 billion in community development investments and loans, the Roundtable said.[@@]
The Washington, D.C.-based group said its financial industry "2003 Annual Survey on Community Involvement" found that giving to the local community in 2002 rose 6.4 percent from the previous year.
Member companies were reported to have volunteered more than 8.2 million hours, the equivalent of nearly 4,100 full-time employees nationwide, to local charities, including the United Way, Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross and Junior Achievement.
Insurance businesses listed in the survey included: AXA Financial Inc., BB&T Corp., The Chubb Corp., GMAC Financial Services, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Minnesota Life Insurance Company, Nationwide, Prudential Financial Inc., The St. Paul Companies, State Farm Insurance Companies, USAA and Wachovia Corp.
"In every community, even under good economic conditions, there are those who lack the basics to build a healthy and secure quality of life," said Steve Bartlett, president and chief executive officer of The Financial Services Roundtable. "Our members show they can make a difference in their communities city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, family by family."
Of the $70 billion in loans and community investment, $56.7 billion accounted for loans and $13.6 accounted for community development investment. Housing loans accounted for the largest portion of loans, with 87.5 percent of community development loans going to housing-related projects.
The Roundtable said the survey shows that financial services companies are finding new ways to help underserved families and businesses in the community, including the availability of individual development accounts.
According to the group, these low-minimum balance savings accounts provide matching funds to help individuals or families save toward a specific goal: a down payment on a home, a car, or college tuition, for example.
The Roundtable said the industry has been quick to adopt such accounts, seeing them as a powerful incentive for those new to the financial system to learn and practice good money management.
The organization said that the findings are further evidence that financial services companies are committed to providing economic opportunity through financial education.
Almost all the banking organizations that responded to the survey offer programs to promote home ownership, the Roundtable said. Roundtable insurers and investment companies also provide financial planning assistance and other programs to help their customers take charge of their financial well-being.
Highlighted in the survey is the Roundtable's Community Build Day, an industry-wide partnership with Habitat for Humanity that resulted in 1,400 executives and employees from 35 Roundtable member companies coming together in 14 U.S. cities and London to begin building 14 new homes for deserving families? all on one day.
The Roundtable noted that the survey results reflect only a portion of financial services companies' investment in their communities. Participation in the survey is voluntary, with a growing number of companies joining each year. Sixty-five Roundtable members participated in the 2003 survey.
"The financial services industry continues to be a leader in corporate philanthropy," said Charles H. Moore, executive director of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy. "These companies encourage and cultivate a spirit of community at all levels of their organizations."
The complete survey may be viewed at the Web site www.fsround.org.
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