Green Investments

The California Organized Investment Network (COIN) serves as a national model to provide leadership in increasing insurance industry investment in underserved and rural communities throughout California. COIN provides leadership in increasing the level of insurance industry capital in safe and sound investments providing fair returns to investors and social benefit to underserved communities.

COIN was established in 1996 at the request of the insurance industry as an alternative to state legislation that would have required insurance companies to invest in underserved communities, similar to the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that applies to the banking industry. This voluntary program facilitates insurance industry investments that provide solid returns to investors and economic and social benefits to California's underserved urban and rural communities.

In 2009, as a member of the California State Assembly, then Assemblyman Jones authored legislation, Assembly Bill 1011 of 2010, that expanded California's Community Organized Investment Network (COIN) that offers tax credits for insurance companies that invest in low-income and moderate-income communities, to include "green investments" (Assembly Bill 1011 of 2010).

In 2016, the Department announced $10 million in tax credits awarded to 15 insurance companies and other investors that made more than $50 million in capital investments into California's underserved communities through the 2016 California Organized Investment Network (COIN) Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) tax credit cycle, which marks the end of the tax credit program with the expiration of its authorization. Legislation to extend the tax credit program (AB 2128 by Speaker Emeritus Toni Atkins) was vetoed.

California Department of Insurance Press Release, December 13, 2016