Good morning everyone. I want to extend a warm welcome on behalf of the Aspen Institute and the Federal Reserve. We have a lot of good information that's going to be presented in these next couple days. I encourage you to ask a lot of questions. First off though I want to acknowledge my staff who made it possible to pull off this meeting. Thanks to them for making this happen. Let's move on to our first speaker.

I first want to say thank you to the Aspen Institute for their tireless work with us to coordinate this conference. I want to spend a moment to give you some background information on the Community Affairs function in the Federal Reserve System and how the Fed became involved with the Aspen Institute.

The Federal Reserve is focused on ensuring economic stability and a well-functioning banking system. The Consumer and Community Affairs division at this Reserve Bank is in part composed of commissioned bank examiners. These individuals give us important grounding in one of the Fed’s key roles as we seek to inform public policy debate related to economic development. CCA also has an internal research function. The combination of skill sets allows us to explore topics in ways we could not otherwise.

We've waded into some of the factors affecting fair access to financial services and public policy issues that influence economic development. We can all appreciate that the informed use of financial products such as checking and retirement accounts, and common forms of credit is critical to a healthy society.

Access to financial services to all segments of society is important. We have placed greater emphasis in recent years on supporting the efforts of organizations that provide financial services to historically underserved communities, and identifying ways to make those organizations sustainable and effective. We are working with the Aspen Institute to explore new avenues to growth, impact, and sustainability. This conference is based on an Aspen paper drawing lessons and business models mostly from the private sector. One of the case studies in this paper is the original Visa card, which gave rise to a new industry. There is much to learn from this example and others. Other Reserve Banks in various parts of the country are going to hold these same kinds of meetings but focusing on somewhat different methods, lessons, and practices.
We will discuss today successful organizations in various industries that have employed careful planning, market research, outsourcing and other means to achieve efficiencies, strategic partnerships, and alternative forms of affiliation to achieve growth, impact, and sustainability.

I want to recognize our partners here at the Fed. People here are awesome. They are a machine when it comes to organizing conferences and we're grateful to them.

Many of us here are from nonprofit organizations and we couldn't be here without funding. I do want to acknowledge the people who made this possible for us be here. I want to thank the presenters and speakers who have traveled here to share with us their information.

I owe a lot to my partnership with Greg. He is my true partner in crime. I also want to thank the rest of the team. There is a group that I haven't thanked yet and that is you, the audience. This is an informed participatory conversation and we couldn't have it without you.

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