News
February 7, 2013
Member News
How Shorebank's Successor is Digging Out
Crain's Chicago Business
(2-6-13)
Center for Financial Services Features Case Study on CDBA Member Sunrise Community Bank
Center for Financial Services
(2-6-13)
Debit ID Card Raises Concern of Fraud
SFGate ...
The Center for Financial Services Innovation has launched an "Impact of Innovation" series, profiling "enterprises and executives who are driving positive change across the financial services landscape." CFSI aims to highlight "why innovation is beneficial to both consumers and the marketplace" by providing examples of organizations leading the way on innovation and impact.
As part of this series CSFI profiled CDBA member Sunrise Community Banks, located in the Twin Cities, recognizing them for their innovation in providing general purpose reloadable prepaid debit cards. As Chief Executive David Reiling stated, "The prepaid card 'is the only model that I’ve been able to find that can facilitate a sustainable method to provide [financial] access to low-balance, high transaction consumers and do it in a convenient and transparent way with fair pricing.'" “'The fact is there are a lot of different uses and flexibilities that can happen. In and of itself, a prepaid platform can be a very convenient access point for underserved consumers.'”
Read more about CSFI's case study on how Sunrise Bank has served consumers with new prepaid offerings at their website.
January 23, 2013
Member News
The Helena Arkansas Daily World
(1-23-13)
Kimberly Hall Clement recently joined the staff of Southern Bancorp Community Partners in Helena as community development officer. Clement will be responsible for supporting and promoting community development initiatives in the areas of health, education, housing, leadership, economic development, and other priorities the Strategic Community Plan defines. Southern Bancorp Community Partners works directly with its affiliate Southern Bancorp, a U.S. Treasury-certified community development bank, to revitalize underserved communities in the Mid-South. Together, they seek to reduce poverty by improving education and economic opportunities for individuals and families.
January 17, 2013
Member News
New Haven Indpendent
(1-11-13)
Start Community Bank’s efforts to foster financial literacy and work with first-time account holders have paid off - in the form of an award of nearly $300,000 from the federal government. The two-year-old local community lender announced that news recently at an event at its Whalley Avenue branch. Start was one of 59 banks awarded with a Bank Enterprise Award from the Community Development and Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Start Community Bank will receive an award of $287,834, which will go toward a number of the young lender’s programs. Those include “Loot Camp,” which teaches teens how to save money, and work with Columbus House to help people who are homeless to establish bank accounts.
Nickelodeon Star and BankPlus Present Check to Friends of Children's Hospital
BankPlus
(1-11-13)
With the help of Nickelodeon star SpongeBob SquarePants, BankPlus presented a check for $148,785.40 to Friends of Children’s Hospital, representing the first year’s proceeds from the bank’s Friends of Children’s Hospital CheckCard program. “On behalf of all the physicians, nurses, staff - and most of all - on behalf of the children who are patients at Batson Children's Hospital and their families, we say thank you to BankPlus,” said Dr. Rick Barr, Suzan B. Thames Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Batson Children’s Hospital. “Not only for the show of support demonstrated by the Friends of Children's Hospital Checkcard program, but for the many programs that BankPlus supports every day that benefit children. The funds raised will help our mission of providing the best possible health care to all the children of Mississippi.” BankPlus introduced the charitable option for consumers in November of 2011, returning proceeds from the Friends CheckCard directly to Friends of Children’s Hospital. The Friends CheckCard program is the first of its kind for both BankPlus and Friends.
A report released by the UNC Center for Community Capital details flaws in the methodology and conclusions of a new paper seeking to discredit the Community Reinvestment Act, enacted in 1977 to encourage regulated financial institutions to meet the credit needs of their communities in a safe and sound manner.
Researchers urged policymakers and practitioners to resist being distracted by a widely rejected thesis promoted in a December paper issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The "'blame the CRA' story has been refuted by industry leaders and researchers time and time again," authors said in their report, Debunking the CRA Myth Again. "Rather than trying to place blame where none exists, we argue that the focus of the debate should be on how CRA can be modernized and improved to better reflect the current financial services landscape and meet the continuing credit needs of America's communities."
Read the full report for more information about the study and its conclusions.
When banks carefully track small, significant changes in their customers’ financial situations, these institutions can improve their fortunes and compete more effectively. First-Mover Matters: Building credit Monitoring for Competitive Advantage, a report from McKinsey’s risk practice, shows that one way to better monitor credit is to tap analytics and specialists to spot quantitative and even qualitative early-warning signs of borrower trouble. Another approach is to set up formal triggers for timely intervention that can guide customers back to financial health or limit further losses when the situation isn’t likely to improve. McKinsey argues that better credit monitoring could be one of the main ways that capital-strapped banks can improve their business model.
Read the full report from McKinsey to find out how banks can significantly reduce their exposure.
Although launched only two years ago, Start Community Bank has already been recognized for its work with low- and moderate-income communities in New Haven, Connecticut. A certified community development bank and CDBA member, Start received a Bank Enterprise Award of over $285,000 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution's Fund.
Read more about Start Community Bank and its local lending work via this story from the New Haven Independent.
January 10, 2013
Member News
TalkBusiness
(1-9-13)
Effective Feb. 1, 2013, Darrin Williams, a lawyer and current Democratic Arkansas State Representative, will be the new CEO of Southern Bancorp, Inc. “Darrin’s financial skills, legal experience in securities and financial regulation and history of advocating for the rights of the disadvantaged in both his law practice and his political career make him the perfect choice to lead Southern Bancorp in its mission to build communities and change lives,” said Walter Smiley, current CEO and board chairman of Southern Bancorp, Inc. Williams is a principal at the law firm of Carney Williams Bates Pulliam & Bowman PLLC, where his work focuses on protecting consumers. “My career focus of protecting consumers from the abuses of Wall Street banks has prepared me well to show how banking should and can be done to help communities and people,” said Williams. “I don’t know of a better bank to make that point than Southern.”
Bankruptcy Judge Gives Charles Street AME More Time to Submit Amended Reorganization Plan
Boston Globe
(1-4-13)
The judge in the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church bankruptcy case Friday gave the congregation until Jan. 18 to file an amended reorganization plan, over the protests of bank lawyers who called the church’s proposals unrealistic and based on erroneous figures. It was the latest skirmish in what has turned into a long court battle between the church and OneUnited Bank. Charles Street AME filed for federal bankruptcy protection last March, after it fell behind on payments for nearly $5 million in OneUnited loans and the bank threatened to auction off the the historic Roxbury church. “There is no plan here that’s possibly feasible,’’ said Gayle Ehrlich, a lawyer for OneUnited, in a withering indictment of the church’s financial records in US Bankruptcy Court in Boston. “This case is way off track and can never get on track.” Ehrlich criticized the church’s proposal to repay its debts to OneUnited over 30 years as unheard of with a business loan — only home mortgages and farm equipment purchases are afforded such long pay-back periods, she...
January 2, 2013
Member News
Atmore News
(1-2-13)
A reception was held at United Bank for retirees Nancy Everette Helton and P. D. Pollard Thursday, December, 13, at the Atmore Main Branch, where friends and coworkers wished them well after more than 28 years of service to the bank and the community. “Today we’re celebrating a day that we all hope to work toward,” said Bob Jones, President and CEO of United Bank, at Thursday’s reception. Jones presented gifts to both as he congratulated them in front of a crowd of more than 100, including fellow bank retirees. “While it’s bittersweet, we wish Nancy and P.D. the best as they begin new chapters and new adventures,” Jones said.
BankPlus Takes on Mississippi Payday Lenders
American Banker
(January 1, 2013)
As the operators of a community bank in the state with the most payday lenders per capita (32 for every 100,000 people), executives at BankPlus in Belzoni, Miss., are characteristically appalled at the exorbitant rates that payday lenders charge. But uncharacteristically for a bank, BankPlus decided four years ago to compete with these payday lenders. Now it successfully offers a small-dollar loan product to thousands of people, with significantly better terms and outcomes. "The idea was to create a program to assist anyone caught in the payday lending cycle, but also to serve the underbanked who seek to enter the commercial banking system," says Bill Ray, the president and CEO of $2.3 billion-asset BankPlus.
BankPlus, a certified community development bank and CDBA member, is located in Mississippi, the state with the most payday lenders per capita. But executives at the Bank were not willing to stand by as these payday lenders charged extremely high rates to often low-income borrowers. Instead, BankPlus decided to offer a small-dollar loan product with better terms and outcomes. According to BankPlus President and CEO Bill Ray, "The idea was to create a program to assist anyone caught in the payday lending cycle, but also to serve the underbanked who seek to enter the commercial banking system."
Learn more about BankPlus's innovative financial product at American Banker.