CRA

The Silicon Valley payment processor is firing back at critics who say its bid for a bank charter would open the door to similar gambits by tech giants. Community activists, meanwhile, seem to be coming around to the idea of Square opening a bank.

Clearinghouse CDFI will use funds from the $2 million investment to support affordable-housing and economic-development projects in communities and Native American reservations in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The company, which recently bought Sabadell United in Miami, is pledging to make billions of dollars in mortgages and small business loans in low- and moderate-income communities.

The Ohio company's CRA rating took a hit after it inadvertently overcharged some customers.

It is the largest equity investment that Clearinghouse CFDI has received in its two-decade history.