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Industrial Bank is responding to changing demographics and customer needs by transitioning from a culture emphasizing its friendly, family-owned roots to more businesslike service efficiency. Key to the shift have been the efforts of Vice President and Director of Human Resources Lynne Rowe, who has worked to adjust staff expectations about what constitutes good service and high performance. Measuring efficiency and expediting transactions is becoming as important as friendly, flexible service, Rowe says. During the culture conversion, Rowe spent considerable time engaging her coworkers in redefining Industrial Bank’s mission to emphasize adaptable service efficiency for a diverse clientele. “Each day brings new challenges, and you don’t know what exciting thing is going to greet you,” said Rowe.
A new initiative proposed by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe would help Virginia Community Capital finance more grocery stores, eliminating food deserts in communities throughout the state. The proposed Virginia Grocery Investment Fund is a $10 million fund devoted to creating a viable business model for financing grocery stores in low-income urban and rural communities that lack access to healthy foods. Under the plan, Virginia Community Capital would invest $15 million of its own money in financing grocery stores, then seek an additional $75 million from federal grants and private partnerships with organizations that want to bring grocery store options to food deserts. Virginia lawmakers will decide whether to approve the initiative later this month.
A new collaboration between City National Bank of New Jersey, Clearshift and East Coast Capital Holdings aims to facilitate currency exchange with lower fees. The new platform relies on the millions of currency changes that occur on a daily basis in opposite directions. One company may need to exchange euros for dollars, while another company needs to exchange dollars for euros. The platform allows these exchanges to be done, to the greatest extent possible, as a P2P exchange. Clearshift makes up the difference in cases where an exact match can’t be found. As an additional benefit, the platform is capable of offering more cost transparency than many other services because it bases its exchange rates on the rates published by central banks daily.
Teri Williams, president and chief operating officer of OneUnited Bank, appears in the new film "Black Friday: What Legacy Will You Leave?" produced by Ric Mathis of Mathis Multimedia Group. The goal of the film is to enhance the perception of the financial services industry within urban communities. The film covers a range of topics affecting the finances of Black communities, including challenges accessing financial literacy training, low savings and the absence of support for African-American owned businesses. “I’m honored to be a part of this film and thrilled that filmmakers are beginning to focus on financial literacy,” said Ms. Williams. “OneUnited Bank is always seeking creative ways to educate urban communities about the importance of saving, financial literacy, good credit and other money matters.”
Bronx-based Spring Bank is expanding unbanked customers’ access to banking with a variety of innovative services. The bank’s signature consumer loan program, Borrow and Save, encourages savings by placing 25% of the loan amount into a savings account. The bank also partners with nonprofit employers on its Employee Opportunity Loan Program, which provides loans as an employee benefit. Now, Spring Bank has formed a partnership with financial self-assessment tool Happy Mango to develop an online lending platform that offers an alternative to traditional credit ratings. The new platform will also help users track spending and manage their finances. “There are folks who don’t make a lot of money, but who are really good stewards of the money they do make, so we feel that they will be a good bet,” said director of consumer lending Melanie Stern.
A new online payment platform from City National Bank of New Jersey aims to disrupt the foreign currency payment space. Using the platform, businesses will be able to easily pay foreign counterparties in virtually any currency with transparent and low-cost fees. The platform will also be made available as a white-label solution for other community banks. The service is being developed under a partnership with international financial services company Clearshift Group and specialized small business investment company East Coast Capital Holdings. "This venture is an example of how the combination of Fintech companies and banks could ease payment processes, reduce fraud, save users money, promote financial planning, and ultimately move the giant financial industry forward," said Preston D. Pinkett III, Chairman and CEO of City National Bank.
The New York State CDFI Coalition, a group that includes New York City-based Spring Bank, is renewing its push for a state-level version of the CDFI Fund. Their advocacy started in the mid-2000’s and succeeded in establishing the New York State CDFI Fund. But the agency has never received any actual funding, the victim of a perfect storm that included Governor Eliot Spitzer’s resignation and the 2009 financial crisis. A state fund would not only expand award coverage for the state’s CDFIs -- it would also provide match funding for federal CDFI Fund award applications. The Coalition is now advocating for an appropriation of $15 million. “It’s been a long process. I think we’re getting close to the point where there’s support within the legislature and the governor’s office,” says Melanie Stern, director of consumer lending at Spring Bank.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has terminated its order to cease and desist on L.A.-based Broadway Financial Corporation, parent company of Broadway Federal Bank, F.S.B. Broadway has operated under the order since 2010. The OCC had lifted its own consent order from the bank in November 2015. CEO Wayne Bradshaw commented, “This decision by the FRB, along with the OCC’s decision in November, officially [recognizes] that Broadway has re-established its position as a safe and sound financial institution. In addition, these decisions tacitly acknowledge the success that our team has achieved in generating profits, eliminating problem assets, re-building a quality loan portfolio and strengthening our capital structure.”
The President has released his FY 2017 budget, proposing a total of $245.9 MM in CDFI Fund appropriations. That would represent a $12 million increase over the fund’s FY 2016 appropriations. Significantly, the budget proposes $19 million in funding for the Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program, marking the first time in many years the president’s budget has not proposed eliminating the program. The budget also includes a new program aimed at promoting responsible small dollar loan products. The new program would make $10 million available as grants for loan loss reserve funds and as technical assistance for small dollar loan programs.
Sunrise Banks has received the Best Cause Advocacy/Awareness award in the 2015 PR Daily Corporate Social Responsibility awards. The award is in recognition of a brand journalism campaign that Sunrise created to promote the work of local nonprofit, Newgate School. Newgate is a nonprofit, tuition-free automotive technical school located in the Twin Cities. They offer autobody and auto mechanics training for unemployed or under-employed adults. Sunrise worked with Twelve-Plus media to create a short video highlighting Newgate’s mission and history that was launched alongside a robust social media contest and campaign to promote Newgate School and their work.