Urban Partnership Bank recently announced that they have reached an agreement to merge with Providence Bank & Trust, a $628 MM assets bank with 12 locations throughout the Chicagoland area and Northwest Indiana, pending regulatory approval. Urban Partnership Bank was originally founded in 2010 to take over the Shore Bank franchise.

Several groups across the country are identifying special niches in which to operate de novo banks. Before the financial crisis, many de novos were built to grow and eventually sell. Now, that model is changing towards permanence. Becoming well known in a niche could be a way for new banks to add value and stand out in a competitive market. In this effort, these groups are striving to create banks for niche communities such as veterans and minorities.

It is Metro Bank's mission to stimulate economic growth within the distressed neighborhoods of Louisville, KY. For the past 21 years, the Bank has fulfilled this commitment by performing over 60% of its activity in these distressed neighborhoods. Now, to further show its drive for positive impact, Metro Bank is expanding its target market to include additional low-income communities and other underserved populations in all of Jefferson County.

Cities with soaring housing costs have had some success in lowering rents, but that relief has not reached the low-income renters most at risk of losing their housing. Nationally, the pace of rent increases is slowing, with the average rent in at least six cities falling since last summer. However, the decline is primarily in high-end rentals, not for the apartments and other units that house working-class residents who need it most.