Recent News
CDBA has wrapped up the 2015 CDBA Peer Forum, a two day event featuring conversations between community development bank executives and leading community development finance experts. The 2015 Peer Forum was the largest yet, attended by nearly 70 bankers from 44 community development banks across the United States. Guest speakers included Administrator of the Small Business Administration Maria Contreras-Sweet, CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan and Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Bowler. An election was also held at the Peer Forum in which Brian Argrett of City First... Read more
Andy Anderson has been named President and CEO of Bank of Anguilla. He succeeds Fred Miller, Jr., who was elected chairman of the bank’s board of directors. Anderson has been with the Bank of Anguilla since 1983. He previously held the title of chief financial officer and compliance officer and is a director of the bank. Anderson holds BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Mississippi and graduated from LSU Graduate School of Banking of the South in 1988.
New York City-based Spring Bank, in partnership with healthcare nonprofit BOOM!Health, has launched the Employee Opportunity Loan to help workers bridge the gap between their income and cost of living. Spring Bank designed the Employee Opportunity Loan to provide access to affordable small dollar loans through partnerships with local employers. The product allows employees to access small credit securely and conveniently as part of their voluntary benefit package. Loan amounts range from $1,000-$2,500 and have no minimum credit score requirement. "The product demonstrates... Read more
Teri Williams, president of Boston-based OneUnited Bank, is optimistic about the future of black banking despite the struggles black banks have faced since the financial crisis. The recession was particularly difficult for black banks who served a larger percentage of moderate-to-low-income customers. But the economy is on the upswing, and OneUnited is poised to take advantage of the economic situation with a forward-looking tech strategy and new community outreach initiatives, including partnerships with local youth art programs. “It’s important for anyone to bank with... Read more
The FDIC, OCC and Federal Reserve are hosting the Interagency Minority Depository Institution and CDFI Bank Conference to help preserve and promote the missions of minority depository institutions and CDFI banks. The conference focuses on the unique positioning of these institutions to make positive change in their communities. Senior officials including FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell and Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry will be featured speakers. The conference will take place at the OCC Conference Center in Washington, D.C. July 13-15... Read more
M&F Bancorp of North Carolina, one of the nation’s oldest black-owned banks, is launching an effort to revamp its business model to counter the challenges MDIs are facing. With about 60% of its customers over 60 years old, M&F is rebranding and working to reach new customers in order to serve a wider community base. "I just don't think we're going to have more African-American banks open," Sills said. "I think it is incumbent on the ones that are remaining to make sure they're relevant and they're trying to reach out to as many groups or market segments in their... Read more
Amidst growing pressure towards more robust risk-management procedures, many community banks are facing difficult decisions when it comes to choosing when to use outsourced labor and when to increase their own staff to handle risk-management tasks. Outsourcing risk-management tasks such as cybersecurity can be tempting for small banks because of the expenses associated with hiring experts. But outsourcing can also carry risks related to managing the vendor relationship and monitoring the quality of work. Regulators have also been paying close attention to banks' oversight of vendor... Read more
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Monday that the Education Department would forgive the loans of tens of thousands of students who attended Corinthian Colleges. The for-profit college company closed and filed for bankruptcy last month amid charges of fraud. The company has been accused of falsifying placement rates, publicizing deceptive marketing and engaging in predatory recruiting by targeting the most vulnerable low-income students. For-profit colleges get the majority of their revenue from federal student loans -- and account for nearly half of the defaults on these... Read more
The American Bankers Association has issued a call for entries for its Community Commitment Awards, which recognize and promote the ways banks of all sizes contribute to economic growth, community development and enhancing customers' quality of life. Winners will be announced during ABA’s Annual Convention, held Nov. 8-10 in Los Angeles. Winners will receive a complimentary registration to the convention and will be presented with an award at the ceremony. Awards will be made in seven categories covering a range of community development activities including affordable housing, financial... Read more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is leaning against subjecting banks to new rules that would cap the size and frequency of overdraft charges, according to sources briefed on the agency’s work. Instead, the CFPB is likely to limit its action to barring lenders from reordering transactions, a practice in which the order of transactions is manipulated to maximize the number of overdrafts applied to an account. The CFPB may also require better disclosure of overdraft policies to consumers to help them avoid these fees. The CFPB hopes to balance its new consumer protection measures with... Read more
BankFirst Capital Corporation will merge with Newton County Bancorporation, Inc. under a plan approved by the boards of both companies. BankFirst will acquire all six of Newton County Bank's branches, giving it total assets in excess of $875 million. It will now run 18 branches across 10 Mississippi counties, making it the 11th largest Mississippi-based banking institution. "This transaction attractively expands our footprint in central Mississippi and provides additional operating scale across our bank," said Moak Griffin, BankFirst's President and CEO. "We are excited... Read more
A new report from the Filene Research Institute finds that Hispanics -- even those with a greater degree of formal education -- continue to face significant financial challenges. The report surveyed Hispanics who have received at least some college education. Of this group, 40 percent can be classified as “financially fragile,” meaning that they could not come up with $2,000 if the need arose within the next month. Half of credit cardholders in the group reported behaviors that could damage their credit scores and increase interest rates, such as paying only the minimum payment and paying... Read more
Democrats in the House and Senate have banded together around a regulatory relief bill for community banks. Democrats hope their bill will present a viable alternative to the broader Dodd-Frank reform bill proposed by Republicans -- legislation President Obama has already signaled he would veto. The Democrats’ package includes provisions to remove annual privacy notice requirements except when bank disclosures change and to extend the annual exam schedule to 18 months for healthy institutions under $1 billion in assets. The Republican bill, which passed the Senate Banking committee last... Read more
Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Timothy Bowler will be leaving the Treasury Department in mid-June after leading the department’s wind-down of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The TARP Capital Purchase Program currently has 30 banks remaining, down from 700 in 2008. Of these, two are CDFI banks. The CDCI portfolio contains 69 CDFIs, 29 of which are CDFI banks. Bowler assumed his role managing the portfolio after Timothy Massad left to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Bowler has not yet confirmed any future career plans.
Beneficial State Bank and online alternative lender LendUp have partnered to bring a new type of loan to customers in California, Oregon and Washington. The new product, the Personal Builder Loan, is a responsible alternative to traditional payday loans. It is intended to help customers meet their short-term liquidity needs while building their credit. The product features higher loan amounts than typical payday loans, repaid over multiple months with payments reported to credit bureaus. "This is the next step in Beneficial State Bank's five year exploration of an... Read more
In an interview, David Reiling, CEO of Sunrise Banks, describes how he built the bank's brand by working for the community and focusing on social impact. Reiling says listening was the key to Sunrise's success in helping underserved communities. For example, observing the popularity of prepaid cards among Minneapolis' Hmong immigrant community led Sunrise to introduce its own prepaid cards. “I used to pull up a chair next to bank teller lines and talk to people about their views and needs," Reiling says. "I walked around neighborhoods. I talked and I listened... Our... Read more
A recent MIT study has found new evidence of the critical role relationship banking plays in low-income communities. The paper found branch closures had a strong negative effect on small business lending in low income areas — even when other nearby branches remained open. After a branch closing, small-business lending within the branch’s census track declined by an average of 13 percent. The author writes that his findings could call into question the current approach to regulating bank closings and mergers, which often focuses on... Read more
The CDFI Fund is accepting proposals for new and innovative ways of expanding services in low-income and distressed communities as part of its newly announced Innovation Challenge. The goal of the Innovation Challenge is to finance the development of a method, model, tool or product that CDFIs can use to build capacity and expand CDFI investments in underserved target markets, especially in rural areas. Through the Innovation Challenge, the CDFI Fund will select a contractor to conceptualize, propose, develop and demonstrate new and innovative methods that will increase the capacity of... Read more
The historic Masonic Theatre, located in Clifton Forge, Virginia, will be refurbished thanks to funding, flexible lending and expertise from Virginia Community Capital (VCC). Built in 1905, the Beaux-Arts style theater had been the oldest operating theatre in Virginia until it closed in 2010. The Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation raised over $6 million from several sources to revitalize this grand facility. With this funding and additional financing from VCC, the theatre and an adjoining building will be renovated to include a 554-seat auditorium and community room... Read more
Mechanics and Farmers Bank, one of the nation's oldest and largest African-American-owned financial institutions, is rebranding as part of a broader effort to attract a younger and more diverse customer base. The Durham-based bank will now be branded simply as M&F Bank. “We’re trying to attract a younger demographic, a younger customer base,” James H. Sills III, the bank’s president and CEO, said. “Sixty percent of our customers are 60 years old and above... The future for us is the consumer that is 35 to 55... We’re going to be actively seeking diverse clientele. We... Read more