Recent News
The Harbor Bank of Maryland Community Development Corporation dedicated the Joseph Haskins, Jr. Center for Community and Economic Development on Thursday. The center, named for the bank’s founder, chairman, president and CEO, will offer several programs designed to address Baltimore entrepreneurs’ need for access to financial and social capital, as well as technical assistance, to help them grow. It also will provide entrepreneurs low-cost office space and access to resources, networks and other amenities. While the center serves all Baltimore communities, it will... Read more
The Harbor Bank of Maryland Community Development Corp. has dedicated the Joseph Haskins, Jr. Center for Community and Economic Development. The center, located at the bank's headquarters, will offer several programs designed to address altimore entrepreneurs' need for access to financial and social capital, as well as technical assistance, to help them grow. It also offers entrepreneurs low-cost office space and access to resources, networks, and other amenities. The center is already fully leased by entrepreneurial groups eager to benefit from these resources.
Carver Federal Savings Bank hosted a grand re-opening celebration with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its Crown Heights location in Brooklyn, New York on April 19. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) was present at the ceremony. Completing the festivities, The new branch manager, on behalf of the bank, presented a $20,000 check to Wilchfort to benefit the Childrens' Museum. The 70-year-old minority-owned bank now has nine full-service branches in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.
Virginia Community Capital has received a $1.5 million investment from Robins Foundation, a private family foundation with a 60-year history of leading transformational change in the greater Richmond region through innovative philanthropy. The investment will be directed toward development of affordable housing and projects that support a better quality of life for residents. The commitment includes directing $1.25 million into a LION Note (Local Impact Opportunity Note) with VCC and opening a $250,000 impact deposit account with its banking subsidiary, VCC Bank. “Robins and other... Read more
American Samoa is finally getting its own full-service bank, and successfully creating only the second public bank in the United States. The Federal Reserve is allowing the Territorial Bank of American Samoa access to the U.S. payments system nearly two years after the bank applied. The decision is a boon to the remote U.S. territory in the South Pacific, where more than half of the households are at, near or below the federal poverty level. It is also a significant development for those far away from American Samoa. The chartering of a new public bank may provide... Read more
A new report shows that despite strong job growth since the end of the Great Recession, many working families are worse off that they were in 2007, before the Great Recession began. The latest U.S. Census data shows that three out of every 10 working families were low-income in 2016. In addition, income and wealth gaps between working families at the top and bottom of the economic ladder remain at all-time highs. The report, produced jointly by PRB and The Working Poor Families Project, also found disturbing growing inequality among racial and ethnic groups.
Bloomington, Indiana has introduced itself as the first "CDFI Friendly City", in hopes of establishing a new model to bring national financing to local community development. CDFIs, which serve neighborhoods or groups the financial sector has historically neglected, have expanded in recent years but still aren't reaching many American cities. "More than a quarter of counties in the U.S. have had no CDFI lending in the five years between 2011 and 2015," says Brett Theodos, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute who studies on CDFIs. In December 2017, the Urban... Read more
Recently, several large banks have been called out for discriminatory lending practices, including not serving low income areas. For many of those residents, banking services offering personal bank accounts and loans for homes and small businesses, can be difficult to access. But some banks, like Industrial Bank, have made their focus serving those communities. This radio segment explores what it means to live in a "banking desert." Jacquie Boles, Senior Vice President at Industrial Bank, contributes.
On April 9, the Treasury Department debuted the first details of a new and far-reaching community-based tax incentive. In 18 states, newly designated zones could see a wave of new investment under a little-known provision of the recent tax overhaul. These opportunity zones are designed to lure investment to the nation's poorest urban, suburban, and rural communities with a powerful tax incentive. By the accounts of some experts, the program could deliver a vital injection to areas that haven't yet recovered from the Great Recession. Yet it could also fuel gentrification in those... Read more
Urban Institute has collected data on 274 of the largest US cities and ranked those cities on economic, racial, and overall inclusion across four decades. It also measured economic health to see whether cities could harness growth to improve inclusion. The interactive dataset can be explored online to explore national trends, learn lessons from case-study cities, and dig deeper into your own city.
In this article authored by Sunrise Banks CEO David Reiling, the possibility of an Amazon-branded checking account is discussed. Reiling examines whether the product can ceate positive social change, and suggests a potential partnership between Amazon and small, innovative banks in addition to larger institutions like JPMorgan Chase. "The key to disruption in any sector is agility," he wrote. "Big banks are far too clunky and siloed for the rapid adaptive innovation required."
If Congress passes a major rollback of banking rules put in place in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, thousands of banks could be freed from a range of federal regulations. Louisiana community bankers say that, unlike large lenders that bundle mortgages together and quickly resell them on the markets, they keep most of their loans. Ken Hale, president and CEO of the Bank of Montgomery, discussed the impact of such regulations on his bank's finances. "In most rural areas, for most community banks, real estate lending is kind of our bread and butter," he said, explaining that federal... Read more
This article from the American Banker examines the partnership between New Resource Bank in San Francisco and a fintech firm, which aims to reach underserved small-business clients. New Resource, which agreed to sell itself to Amalgamated Bank in New York in December, is delving into an area — working with fintech — that has largely been the domain of larger financial institutions. In doing so, New Resource is taking part in an arrangement that industry observers view as unique given the bank's size. The partnership is enticing for banks looking to grow their C&I portfolios. "I... Read more
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African Americans built a successful business community in Durham, North Carolina. Durham's Black Wall Street flourished, becoming home to some of the most influential minority-owned businesses in the country, including Mechanics and Farmers Bank, the second-oldest minority-owned bank in the United States. Today, black-owned businesses are continuing to thrive. According to the US Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners, black-owned firms make up more than a quarter of all companies in Durham, nearly twice the percentage of black-owned firms in... Read more
Fifty years after the riots that followed the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Washington Post tells the story of Industrial Bank, a black-owned bank in Washington, DC that was founded during the Great Depression and survived the riots. Doyle Mitchell Jr., President and CEO, and his sister, Patricia Mitchell, are interviewed about the bank's history, mission, and survival. Before the riots, the bank cultivated a large and dedicated customer base. In the 50 years of operation since the riots, the bank has continued to grow, benefiting from a resergence along the U... Read more
The historic Brookfield Building, once home to the administrative offices of Fairfax Municipal Airport in Kansas, was named as one of the most dangerous buildings in Kansas City after years of neglect. The space has been renovated and now houses a boutique hotel and residential space in the heart of Kansas City. Central Bank of Kansas City was a major player in the development of the 118-room hotel and 27 adjoined residential units.
Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central California has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Bank of Rio Vista, based in the Sacramento Delta, for $40.7 million. Last year, F&M bought a nearly 40% stake in the Bank of Rio Vista for $12 million. As part of the new transaction, F&M will buy the remaining 60.35% of the century-old bank, which currently has branches in Rio Vista, Walnut Grove, and Lodi, CA. F&M has 28 locations from Merced to downtown Sacramento. F&M said in a news release that it expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in 2019, which will be... Read more
The Savannah City Council has unanimously approved a motion to place a historical marker honoring Carver State Bank founder and president, Louis B. Toomer, in Chatham Square. It will be the first Historical Marker honoring an African American in the historic district of Savannah. The action by the Council was the final step in an approval process that was initiated by Robert James, President of Carver State Bank.
The US Department of the Treeasury has released recommendations to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The recomendations were issued to the primary CRA regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The objective of the recommendations it to better align CRA activity with the needs of the communities that banks serve, while being conducted in a manner consistent with a bank's safety and soundness.
Industry representatives, analysts, and consumer advocates have all praised the Treasury report recommending a slew of CRA reforms that could serve as a jumping off point for regulators twho seem poised to update their decades-old policy. In this Article, the American banker provides five key takeaways from the Treasury report, which has been dubbed "an astonishingly progressive set of recommendations" by Federal Financial Analytics.