Two recent articles suggest that one palliative for the global financial crisis may be close at hand. As global banking giants stumble, attentive, community-focused banks may offer relief for both borrowers and investors.

Slate's Daniel Gross has written a much-needed corrective to an ugly bit of conventional wisdom: that America's subprime borrowers are to blame for the worldwide economic crisis. "Nobody forced Bear Stearns to borrow $33 for every $1 of assets it had," he says.

Mr. Gross' story is not about Wall Street, however. "The Subprime Good Guys" is about for-profit banks on Main Street who've taken a responsible approach to subprime lending. Community development financial institutions (CDFI) make subprime loans, but their deals come complete with financial counseling and a long-term commitment to the borrower. It's the old-fashioned sort of creditor-debtor relationship associated with Jimmy Stewart's character in "It's a Wonderful Life":

"Like a bunch of present-day George Baileys, ethical subprime lenders evaluate applications carefully, don't pay brokers big fees to rope customers into high-interest loans, and mostly hold onto the loans they make rather than reselling them…. "'If one of our employees pushed someone into a house they couldn't afford, they would be fired,' says [Clearinghouse CDFI] CEO Douglas Bystry."

This prudence is rewarded, as the article cites delinquency figures for CDFI that are a fraction of broader industry norms. In the current climate, investors may find opportunities in supporting CDFI. "Investing for Social Impact Lures Investors," by TIAA-CREF's Scott J. Budde, recently appeared in Investment News. As in his treatise Compelling Returns, Mr. Budde provides a detailed but accessible survey of what he calls "community investing." He describes two trends that have fed its growth:

• "Large institutional investors have become involved in community investing for such reasons as client demand, competitive returns in local development, regulatory pressure or foundation mission. The majority of these new institutional investors seek competitive returns across a wide range of community investments…
• "The growth of community investing has also been fueled by direct access to capital markets. The issuance of more easily traded bonds supporting commercial or residential mortgages, for example, has allowed certain community development financial institutions to free up capital for further community investing by packaging and selling assets to other investors."

In these strange times, the largest banks have turned to the largest institutional investor of all: the US Treasury. Confirming the potential of CDFI to build a stronger, fairer banking system, the Social Investment Forum has petitioned the Treasury to also support smaller, community-focused banks. Among other suggestions, SIF calls for $1 billion of the $700 billion federal rescue fund to be directed towards CDFI.

Mr. Budde's second trend – towards securitization of mortgages – may actually have run its course. Many CDFI have lent money the old-fashioned way: they hold on to the note. As Daniel Gross writes:

"Since ethical subprime lenders know they're going to live with the loans they make–rather than simply sell them–they invest in initiatives that will make it more likely the loans will be paid back."

Click here for the full text of SIF's letter to the Treasury.