Small-business owners will be given the option to tap into anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000 in financing.

The Seattle-based company, which had made home loans for more than a century, announced it was quitting the mortgage business in January. It booked nearly 400 small business loans in the first quarter and expects that total to grow as its team gains traction.

The agency plans to restrict access to a system that provides borrower tax returns to mortgage lenders beginning June 30. Left out of the loop, small-business lenders say getting credit to borrowers will become more difficult as a result.

The agreement includes funds for small-business lending and mortgages for low- and moderate-income borrowers in California and Massachusetts. It puts an end to questions about the fate of an $11.2 billion plan that Silicon Valley Bank inked before it failed in March.

The racially targeted mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022 has renewed conversations about whether banks have a duty to help segregated, impoverished communities that were shaped in part by discriminatory lending practices. What do banks owe the Black community, and what influence could they have?

The Cleveland-based regional bank recently announced a $20 million line of credit for Lendistry, a Los Angeles-based, minority-led community development financial institution.

Banks and other lenders revived special-purpose credit programs after racial-equity protests in 2020 prompted them to reexamine their services for historically underserved groups. Now they're taking those initiatives nationwide.