CBA Symposium 2022: Together Again

by Yanki Tshering

This year Credit Builders’ Alliance’s annual symposium was held in person for the first time in two years and we were very pleased to be able to get together with colleagues again, many of whom we hadn’t seen since before the pandemic.

For our first 10 years in operation, we were unable to report to the major credit bureaus. It was only after CBA was established in 2008 and we joined as one of the founding member, that we could finally report to Experian and TransUnion. That allowed us to begin to offer Credit Builder Loans to our clients and, within just a few months, see the dramatic impact it had on their lives. Many of our immigrant clients went from having no credit to establishing a credit score that was high enough for them to rent a storefront or lease a car, for instance.

We were also pleased that two newer members of the Accompany Capital team were able to attend the symposium.

Data Specialist Roberto Evans, who completed the Credit as An Asset Master Trainer Program, offered by CBA over two months of webinars in 202, reported that he was particularly impressed with this year’s presentation by Working Credit NFP about some of the predatory lending practices used by Credit Repair Organizations (CROs,) including “frivolous disputing” and “debt consolidation,” whereby any forgiven amount gets treated as taxable income for the unsuspecting consumer.

Tsetan Dekyi, who has recently joined Accompany Capital as Coordinator of Operations of our expanding Queens office, told us that she was thrilled to attend the CBA Symposium and meet the CBA team, saying, “It was especially moving for me to see IRC client – and current Accompany Capital loan client – Hawa Kassire, a refugee from Chad and a survivor of domestic abuse, participating on the panel on Consumer Credit Stories: Perspectives on Credit Realities. Hawa shared her moving story including how, after being turned down for an apartment due to her poor credit, she quickly she learned about the importance of building and maintaining good credit, something she’s done ever since.

I was very pleased to meet everyone in person and want to thank Dara and her team for a wonderful symposium.

I particularly appreciated the Keynote speaker, Laurie Reuben, who spoke about creating balance. It made me sit back, relax, and enjoy the symposium and appreciate that we were all there as a community working together to create a better financial future for our clients.