News

| Thursday, February 28, 2013

CDBANewsflash - Low Rez For Email 2

February 28, 2013
 


Member News

 
 
A lawyer for OneUnited Bank on Monday contested a revised bankruptcy reorganization plan filed by the Charles Street AME Church, arguing that new revelations about the congregation’s finances make it less likely the church can afford to pay its debts. “You think this case should be dismissed,’’ Judge Frank Bailey said after a pointed back-and-forth with the bank’s lawyer, who finally agreed. Edelman, the lawyer, said the creditors need to vote again on the church’s plan, with updated financial information that takes into account the new revelations as well. The judge said he would consider the arguments and make a ruling.
 
 
NPR 
(2-25-13)
 
The city of Oakland, California is taking a major step toward helping to bring many of its residents, especially illegal immigrants, out of the shadows. It will issue a municipal identification card to anyone who can prove residency. Oakland isn't the only city to issue such ID cards to illegal immigrants. New Haven and San Francisco already do that. The Oakland card, however, has a unique feature — it doubles as a debit card. The ID card is marketed by a Venice, California-based company, SF Global, in association with MasterCard and the Minnesota-based ...
| Wednesday, February 20, 2013

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February 20, 2013
 


Member News

 
Daniel Koehler Joins Board of Southern Bancorp Inc.
Southern Bancorp, Inc. 
(2-12-13) 

Daniel Koehler, president of Koehler Software, Inc., and former Chief Financial Officer of Union National Bank of Little Rock, has joined the board of Southern Bancorp Inc., a family of a community development banks and a nonprofit affiliate that work in concert to revitalize underserved communities in the mid-South. Along with serving on the board, Koehler will chair Southern’s audit committee. “The dual mission of Southern is unique in banking, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with my fellow directors and officers in making a worthwhile contribution to communities in Arkansas and Mississippi,” said Koehler. Prior to his banking career, Koehler was a certified public accountant with Arthur Young & Company in New York, where he divided his time between the firm’s audit and tax practices.

 

Of Interest

 
Pastor-Run Covenant Bank Fails 
Crain's Chicago Business 
(2-15-13) 

Covenant Bank, the small West Side lender run by mega-church pastor Bill Winston, was closed late Friday by bank regulators, wiping out the investments of more than 3,000 members of Rev. Winston's Forest Park church. Liberty Bank & Trust Co., an African-American-owned bank in New Orleans, assumed $58 million in Covenant Bank assets and $54 million in deposits, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced. The failure brings to a bad end the $3 million acquisition more than four years ago of the former Community Bank of Lawndale by the group led by Rev. Winston, with much of the cash supplied by members of his 20,000-member congregation, Living Word Christian Center.

Financial Services Panel OKs Oversight Plan After Testy Markup
CQ Roll Call 
(2-15-13) 

The House...

| Thursday, February 14, 2013

CDBANewsflash - Low Rez For Email 2

February 14, 2013
 


Member News

First American International Bank 
(2-8-13)

First American International Bank (FAIB) announced today the planned retirement of its President and CEO, Alfonso Lau. Mr. Lau will remain with the bank until March 2013 to manage an orderly transition to his successor. Mr. Lau will continue as a Director of FAIB and the holding company, First American International Corporation (FAIC). FAIB also announced that Mark Ricca will become its new President and CEO in March 2013. Mr. Ricca joins the bank from Carver Bancorp, Inc., the bank holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank in New York City, where he was Executive Vice President. Raymond Yu, Chairman of the Board of both FAIB and FAIC, said, "We would like to thank Al for leading us for the past 13 years as we have grown our bank from one branch in Brooklyn to nine branches in three boroughs. We look forward to continuing to successfully serve our depositors and clients as we complete our transition and Mark assumes the helm."

Carver Bancorp Returns to Profitability
American Banker 
(2-8-13) 

Carver Bancorp (CARV) in New York ended a drought by posting a profitable fiscal third quarter. The $640.6 million-asset company earned $474,000 in the quarter after losing $680,000 a year earlier. "We are pleased to report our first quarterly profit since our real estate loan portfolio was severely impacted by the economic downturn," Deborah Wright, Carver's chief executive, said in a press release. "Our positive net income results for the quarter bring Carver's year-to-date results close to break-even. Our loan performance also continued to improve, with nonperforming assets declining 5% from the prior quarter and 30% year-to-date."

Community Bank of the Bay Announces Unaudited 2012 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings
Community Bank of the Bay 
(2-6-13) 

Highlights include: Net income for 2012 totaled $1,389 thousand, or $0.19 earnings per share, versus a loss of $6 thousand for 2011. Total...

| Thursday, February 7, 2013

CDBANewsflash - Low Rez For Email 2

February 7, 2013
 


Member News

 

How Shorebank's Successor is Digging Out
Crain's Chicago Business 
(2-6-13)

The successor to ShoreBank, the high-profile urban community lender that failed in August 2010, finally got its loan machine working last year. Urban Partnership Bank, based on Chicago's South Side, blew through its $26 million loan-origination goal for 2012, lending $35 million to small businesses and real estate investors on the city's South and West sides. The $1.1 billion-asset bank, which employs 311, has set a $42 million lending goal for 2013. Bank executives said they continue to be cautious yet are finding opportunities in neighborhoods that have been devastated economically and are suffering through a rash of gun violence that has made national headlines. The good news: “We think fundamentals are stabilizing in our neighborhoods,” CEO William Farrow said in an interview. But Mr. Farrow's isn't sugarcoating the situation: “As a friend recently said, he could buy his parents' house for the same price they paid in 1963.”

Center for Financial Services Features Case Study on CDBA Member Sunrise Community Bank
Center for Financial Services 
(2-6-13)

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 Bank, 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."
 

Debit ID Card Raises Concern of Fraud
SFGate ...

| Wednesday, February 6, 2013

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

| Wednesday, January 23, 2013

CDBANewsflash - Low Rez For Email 2

January 23, 2013
 


Member News

Southern Bancorp Community Partners Names New Community Development Officer
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. 
 


Of Interest

Affordability for Renters Worsens "Across Board" in Philadelphia Area
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
(1-23-13)
 
While housing affordability challenges were greatest for extremely low-income renters, affordability indicators worsened across the board for renters in the Third Federal Reserve District between 2005 and 2010, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Community Development Studies Education Department. Of the 1.4 million renter households in the Third District in 2010, half spent more than 30 percent of their income on gross rent (including utilities), a level typically referred to as a housing cost burden. This share drifted up gradually from 44 percent in 2005. The level was highest for extremely low-income renters earning no more than 30 percent of the local median family income. However, the rates for very low-income and low-income renters grew by 5 and 10 percentage points, respectively, during the period. In total, 29 percent of renter households in the Third District had a severe housing cost burden in 2010, an...
| Thursday, January 17, 2013

CDBANewsflash - Low Rez For Email 2

January 17, 2013
 


Member News

Start Bank Sees Return On Investment
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.  
 


...

| Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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. 

| Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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.

| Friday, January 11, 2013

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. 

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