Low-income, less-educated, and minority households are less likely to have bank accounts—which are essential for households' financial well-being. People have cited high fees, minimum balance requirements, and other reasons why they don't have bank accounts. Federal agencies have worked to increase banking access. For example, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation piloted a public awareness campaign on the benefits of bank accounts. Are these agencies' efforts working? Many of the agencies don't know—so we recommended developing performance measures for these efforts to help determine how effective they are.

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury launched a historic demographic information collection effort to measure equity outcomes for small businesses supported by the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program. The information collected by Treasury will support the program's commitment to expanding access to capital for businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SEDI businesses). The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 included $10 billion for SSBCI to provide to states, the District of Columbia, territories, and Tribal governments for programs that help small businesses access capital, including $2.5 billion in allocations to support SEDI businesses. SSBCI will provide recipient jurisdictions funding for a range of programs that will increase access to credit for small businesses, including through lending and equity capital investments, to help businesses grow in the years ahead. Treasury's implementation of the SSBCI program is designed to expand access to capital, promote economic resiliency, and create new jobs and economic opportunity.

OneUnited Bank, the largest Black owned bank, announces the opening of its new state of the art branch in Compton, California on February 28, 2022. The Bank is excited to honor its roots and renew its long-term commitment to the City of Compton. OneUnited Bank was forced to close its Compton branch in March 2020 after its landlord refused to renew its long-term lease to open a national chain sneaker store. Like many Black owned businesses that are displaced due to gentrification, the Bank was forced to either permanently close or relocate. Although the Bank considered permanently closing as more customers move to digital banking, its commitment to its Compton customers and the Compton community resulted in the decision to relocate. The new branch, located at 1495 N. Wilmington Avenue, Compton CA 90022, is less than 2 miles from the previous branch location.

It took more than a decade for Southern Bancorp Bank to double its tally of total assets from $1 billion to $2 billion. The top executive of the bank's parent company expects the journey to $4 billion will be much shorter. "With the amount of capital we're going to receive, we will double in size during the next three to five years," said Darrin Williams, CEO of Southern Bancorp Inc. A big catalyst for that future growth is a $237.5 million injection courtesy of the U.S. Treasury's Emergency Capital Investment Program. The money isn't in the bank but is expected to arrive in the second or third quarter. "That will give us the capital bandwidth to work for quite awhile," Williams said. The money will double Southern Bancorp's capital base and position the Arkadelphia bank to accelerate expansion of its $1.2 billion loan portfolio. Under the ECIP, a maximum investment of $250 million was possible, but Williams isn't complaining.