Navy Federal Joins Industry-Wide CONVERGENCE Collaborative as a Founding Member

Group convened by Mortgage Bankers Association to address barriers to homeownership among historically underserved populations

VIENNA, VA (October 7, 2024) – Navy Federal Credit Union is joining partners across the financial and housing sectors as a founding member of the CONVERGENCE Collaborative, an industry-wide group designed to address systemic barriers to homeownership among Black, Hispanic and other minority groups in America. In recognition of the growth of diverse homeownership markets across the nation, the Mortgage Bankers Association convened more than a dozen industry groups to create new strategies that will ensure the US housing sector can adapt alongside evolving dynamics already underway and further expected in the coming decades.

In its official launch of the collaborative, MBA noted that the Black homeownership rate was 45.8% in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from last December’s US Census Housing Vacancy Survey. This compares to a 74.4% rate for non-Hispanic Whites, a 28.6% gap that has diminished insufficiently since the turn of the century.

“Navy Federal is grateful for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s leadership in bringing together the CONVERGENCE Collaborative,” said Navy Federal CEO Dietrich Kuhlmann. “We’re proud to serve as a founding member of this group, knowing the voice and influence of the world’s largest credit union must help to address systemic problems that have persisted in our nation for too long.”

Between 2020 and 2030, 8.5 million net new households are expected to be formed nationwide, with roughly 7.6 million coming in the following decade, according to a recent report from the Urban Institute. Many of these new households will comprise Americans from minority and traditionally underserved populations.

Leading Navy Federal’s internal effort to engage with the CONVERGENCE Collaborative is its new Office of Financial Opportunity. The credit union recently announced the hiring of 13-year Freddie Mac veteran Pam Perry to lead the OFO as Navy Federal’s senior vice president of financial opportunity. In the role, Perry will work alongside Brittani Ivey, who was installed as the credit union’s executive vice president of real estate lending and financial opportunity in March.

In launching the partnership, MBA identified four specific policy and program areas the Collaborative will target to create new and additional homeownership opportunities for American families.

Starting with an “Information Gap,” the group will work to dispel misperceptions that drive consumers away from the housing market based on assumptions they do not meet certain criteria for homeownership. Addressing a “Trust Gap” will target consumer reluctance, particularly within minority communities that have disproportionately experienced mistreatment from the financial services industry. Moving toward a “Market Gap,” the collaborative will partner on strategies that target housing inventory challenges, including issues of housing quality and neighborhood amenities. Finally, and perhaps most tangibly, addressing the “Resource Gap” will maximize consumer awareness of and access to the various resources currently in place to support first-time and underserved buyers along their path to homeownership.