Finance
Bank of America Becomes First National Bank to Let Customers Finance Chargers With Their EVs
As electrical automobiles achieve traction within the U.S., increasingly corporations want to make the patron transition to electrification simpler. Some corporations are making some shocking strikes, like Financial institution of America. The financial institution has introduced that it’s going to enable clients to bundle financing of EVs and chargers to make EV possession simpler. That makes BofA the primary nationwide financial institution to supply such a program.
Underneath the plan, clients in search of auto financing for his or her EVs can go to Financial institution of America and finance each their EV and their charger collectively. Fabien Thierry, head of Shopper Car Merchandise for the financial institution, stated it’s all about making EV possession simpler and making the transition to EVs extra interesting. “We goal to assist folks ‘go electrical’ by offering financing for this essential accent, which permits shoppers to cost their automobiles in their very own properties and at handy occasions,” he stated.
It’s a welcome program, as each little bit helps. EV chargers aren’t low-cost. Degree 1 prices may be had below $1,000, however labor alone can value practically double the value of the charger itself; sooner chargers can value properly over $1,000. And none of this takes under consideration the potential value if your house must be rewired to deal with the charger. It may be a giant funding.
Fabien Thierry additionally said to Automotive Information that he believes the financial institution is “among the many first” to supply a program like this. “Financial institution of America has been supporting the electrification, and we’ve been saying that we need to be one of many EV financing leaders,” he stated. He’s proper.
Whereas states like Vermont and California have applications that may assist folks pay for or finance EV chargers, nobody has thought to bundle the financing of an EV along with a charger. Small regional banks and credit score unions supply EV financing that some declare is particular, however it’s exhausting to find out simply what makes their EV financing totally different from common automobile financing.
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Whereas Financial institution of America identified in its launch that it has been taking actions to assist customers transition to EVs — like partnering with Polestar and Lucid to arrange their in-house finance corporations — there was one lingering query I had: can customers simply finance an EV charger alone, or can they solely do this at the side of EV financing? I reached out to Financial institution of America for extra data.
A rep for the corporate knowledgeable me that the bundling of the EV and charging may be performed if a seller participates of their program. Prospects additionally received’t be capable of simply finance an EV charger alone. You may solely finance the value of the EV charger if it’s performed with an EV.
Finance
Finance & Budget Committee chair Reiches wants city's fiscal level sound – Evanston RoundTable
Shari Reiches is a leader and a go-getter. You may be familiar with her name from earlier RoundTable articles about her work on the city’s Finance & Budget Committee where she is the group’s chair. The committee meets the second Tuesday of every month (except in August) and there is always an agenda provided ahead online. The next meeting will take place at 5 p.m., Feb. 11.
Business founder, author, volunteer
Twenty years ago Reiches co-founded the business, Rappaport Reiches Capital Management. Today the firm employees a dozen people and manages more than a billion dollars in investments for individuals, families and nonprofit organizations.
She enjoys public speaking; one of her favorite topics is financial planning and values. In fact, Reiches wrote a book, Maximize Your Return on Life — Invest Your Time and Money in What You Value Most, that explains her philosophy and vision of investing. Radio programs, television shows, newspapers, magazines and podcasts seek out her point of view when it comes to money matters. She also volunteers with many organizations important to her.
Reiches was previously vice chair and board member of the Illinois State Board of Investments (ISBI), a $23 billion pension system. Gov. Bruce Rauner appointed her on Jan. 30, 2015 and she served four years.
Evanston mayor Daniel Biss knew Reiches from her work with ISBI when he was a member of the Illinois Senate. He nominated her to be one of the Finance & Budget Committee’s three lay leaders. The other two lay leaders are David Livingston, an executive in business development and treasury at ITW, a global manufacturing company, and Leslie McMillan, a private wealth manager. Five council members are also on the committee.
Role of Finance & Budget Committee
The committee’s purview is related to bills, budgets, financial reporting and management, investments, rating agencies, Evanston Police Department and Evanston Fire Department pension boards; and the funding of capital improvements and other long-term obligations.
Under Reiches’ leadership, the committee’s goals for the 2024-2025 year include:
- Identify additional revenue sources
- Review expenses
- Review capital improvement plan
- Establish long-term debt plan
- Review status of pensions
- Utilize benchmarking data
“The Finance & Budget Committee does not have decision authority,” she said. “All decisions are made by the City Council. We give advice and guidance to the City Council. My primary objective for the Finance & Budget Committee is to set policies that will continue beyond our terms.”
Pension policy
Reiches also touched on her commitment to creating policy.
“I want to come up with policies,” she said. “So we’ve already come up with two big policies. The first one was a pension policy.”
“Illinois law requires pension funds to have assets that cover 90% of estimated pension liabilities by 2045,” she said. “Our finance committee recommended, and the city council approved, a proposal to fund pensions so their assets cover 100% of pension liabilities by 2040. As a result of this new policy, the City of Evanston in 2024 increased its funding of our fire and police pensions by approximately $10 million over 2020.”
“A pension is a liability,” she said. “You can’t just say ‘I’m not going to fund the pension.’ We could have kept going at the 90% rate, but then there would be a huge tax to pay in the future,” she said.
“We are proud of this policy because it is sound fiscal policy. It was our first big, big win,” Reiches said.
Going forward, the committee plans to meet at least annually with the presidents of the Evanston police and fire pension boards to review the respective pension plans’ performances as well as updated actuarial reports.
Non-budgeted expenses policy
Sometimes unplanned opportunities arise. One example: last year the city council approved the purchase of Little Beans Café, 430 Asbury Ave., at a cost of $2.6 million. It will become the city’s dedicated site for accessible recreation programs.
This purchase was not on anyone’s radar. The idea for the purchase also bypassed any review by the Budget & Finance Committee.
Reiches said, “Our second big new policy is a non-budgeted expenditure policy. Any expenditure over $500,000 that was not budgeted comes to our committee for discussion before going to the council. The alders have big agendas and a lot on their plates. We have the time to review possible non-budgeted expenditures in more detail.”
The debt level
Another topic that has consumed a lot of discussion time is the city’s debt level. Debt allows the city to purchase goods and services that are beyond the scope of the annual budget, similar to a mortgage for a house or a loan for a car.
As the city contemplates taking on additional debt, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not an even switch due to inflation. Between what the city needs and the rate of inflation, the new debt could exceed the amount of the debt rolling off. Reiches wrote in an email that, “The committee strongly feels we need to understand the additional debt the city is taking and the future expenses related to the debt in context of the overall budget.”
In Reiches’ view, this is the main reason for creating a debt management plan.
A policy to plan and manage Evanston’s debt
At the November 2024 Finance & Budget Committee meeting, the committee directed staff to include an item on the January 2025 agenda to discuss developing a debt management plan. To begin this discussion, the committee reviewed baseline debt data for the City of Evanston and peer communities.
For this review, the peer communities include Skokie, Oak Park, Park Ridge, Palatine, Bloomington, Arlington Heights and Des Plaines.
Along with its agenda for the Jan. 14 meeting, the committee provided a debt analysis. The analysis shows the amount of General Obligation (GO) Bond principal to be retired by category for all outstanding issuances from 2025 through 2044. (Refer to chart on pages 9-10.) The amount for 2025 is $13.57 million.
The chart below shows the city’s property tax levy and its various components since 2013.
This note from the city document succinctly states the situation: “As shown, from FY 2013 to FY 2025, the Debt Service Levy increased by 13%, the General Fund levy by 14%, and the Public Safety Pension levy by 41%. During this time, the CPI [Consumer Price Index] has gone up 35%, with increases for construction materials outpacing CPI. Given that CPI has far exceeded increases to the levy and that dedicated revenues have not been identified for the CIP [capital improvement projects], the City will be able to complete far less capital work in FY 2025 than in FY 2013 despite growing capital needs.”
Selecting a debt level
Currently the City Council selects the projects to be funded and adds the total amount for estimated costs. The total estimated cost determines the debt level.
Reiches and the committee recommend an alternative process: determine the amount of debt (still to be determined) the city can afford. Decide which projects get funded based on that number. Determining the debt level also provides a backstop for overspending.
“Our biggest expenses are capital improvements, plus we have deferred maintenance with aging facilities and parks,” Reiches said. “We have underground water pipes that are more than 100 years old that need to be replaced and the alleys that need paving.”
Budget management
The committee is also trying to limit projects that go over budget. The city’s finance staff alerts the committee of any expenses that increase 10% or more over budget. The committee is discussing ways to reduce some expenses in 2025.
Last year the city’s finance team was recognized by City Manager Luke Stowe after the city received an award from the Government Finance Officers Association. Evanston received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its fiscal year 2024 budget, with particular acknowledgment for performance measures.
Reiches praised the committee’s working relationship with the City Council and described them as “very supportive.”
The Finance & Budget Committee is a new committee for Evanston. “We’re here for strategy and the big picture. We’re not here to micromanage the staff or the council,” Reiches said. “The Budget & Finance Committee provides the Alderman with detailed information so that they can make prudent decisions. The overall decision are with the Alderman.”
Working toward the future
“When I took over as Chair of the Finance & Budget Committee, I quoted my dad in my initial comments. He taught me, ‘We can have anything we want, but we can’t have everything we want.’”
She added, “Whoever’s going to be here in 2040 will be so happy because the pension will be funded and the deferred maintenance will be done, but it will take a while.”
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Trump puts tariffs on hold: What he still plans to pass on Day 1
President Donald Trump has officially been sworn back into office for his second term on Monday, January 20. Trump has a slew of policies and executive orders he seeks to enact on his first day back in office following his inauguration ceremony. A hot talking point on the campaign trail and the time since his election victory, Trump announced his plans to put his tariff proposals on hold for now.
Yahoo Finance senior columnist Rick Newman and Washington correspondent Ben Werschkul join the show to discuss the executive actions Trump is still planning upon his return to the Oval Office.
Read up on Yahoo Finance’s Guide to Trump 2.0 and what the incoming administration still plans to pass.
Watch President Donald Trump’s 2025 Inauguration ceremony, while staying up to date with all the market news and economic data covered by Yahoo Finance.
This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Finance
IAEA Profile: Balancing Numbers and Dreams – A Career in Finance and Accounting
The IAEA profiles employees to provide insight into the variety of career paths that support the Agency’s mission of Atoms for Peace and Development and to inspire and encourage readers, particularly women, to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or STEM-adjacent fields. Read more profiles of women at the IAEA.
Hailing from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Carmen Kibonge has taken a path shaped by a passion for numbers, a supportive family and a commitment to make a difference, which eventually led her to the IAEA.
Kibonge was raised in a family that encouraged educational aspirations for both girls and boys, which is not always the case in her central African home country, where economic constraints often lead families to prioritize the education of boys. “In my family, it was expected that a girl would go to school. I know I was privileged, and I really appreciated the access to education,” she reflects. She was also inspired by her mother, an HR manager who was one of the few women in her community to pursue higher education.
From an early age, Kibonge was captivated by mathematics and loved “cracking numbers”. Because of her mental arithmetic skills, her nickname at school was Ordi, after the French word for computer. But maths was not part of her original career aspirations. When she contemplated her future, a desire to help others and the work of international organizations in low and middle income countries like her own led her to consider a career in medicine. Her dream of becoming a paediatrician, however, shifted when she was confronted with the sight of blood in biology class. Nevertheless, the seed of wanting to work internationally had been planted. “I wanted to help people, not just in my country, but globally,” she says.
Kibonge decided to pursue higher education in Austria, motivated by stories from friends who had lived there, as well as her love of classical music. Following her passion for numbers, she enrolled at the University of Vienna to study business administration with a focus on finance and accounting. Meanwhile, she supported herself by giving maths lessons.
The move to Vienna was not without its challenges, as Kibonge had to first learn German before starting her degree programme. She dedicated the first two semesters to intensive language study. “Those early days in Vienna were really challenging, but I really put my mind to it,” she recalls. “If you really want something, you can manage it.” Living in the city of classical music had its upsides though, and she often attended performances at the opera and philharmonic, impressed by how accessible they were even for students of modest means.
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