Community Development Banking News
CDFI Banking: Industry, Policy, and Beyond.
BankPlus and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas presented a check for $8,000 to Lauderdale County Habitat for Humanity to create a marketing plan and website. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that provides housing for low-income working families. The agency has put 78 families in homes over the last 30 years in Lauderdale County. The organization does not have a website, but uses Facebook and Instagram to connect with the community. The website will be used to promote the organization, to collect donations and as a place for volunteers to sign up.
AB 857, which creates a legal pathway in California for public banks owned by city and county governments where cities and counties would deposit public dollars, was recently passed by the California Assembly. The governor has until October 13 to sign it into law. Progress on public banks in California will be closely watched in other states and cities where organizers and public officials have been pushing for public banks — including Washington State, New Mexico, Michigan, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, the Twin Cities, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere. Inspired by the state-owned Bank of North Dakota (until recently the only public bank operating in the U.S.), proponents of AB 857 envision a statewide network of public banks that would leverage local public deposits in support of public policy priorities like affordable housing and homeownership, clean energy and climate adaptation, small business lending, alternatives to payday loans, and other priorities that public banking advocates feel are too important to leave entirely up to privately owned banks.
On Wednesday, September 18, 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department announced $25.2 million in Bank Enterprise Awards (BEA) by the US Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. 38 banks certified as CDFIs received awards for their efforts to channel $19.4 million of deposits into 18 CDFI credit unions to support their lending in distressed communities. In 2016, the Community Development Bankers Association and Inclusiv began working together to play matchmaker between CDFI banks participating in the BEA Program and CDFI credit unions. While traditional banks and credit unions wage fierce battles over market share, tax status, and a host of regulatory issues, CDFI banks and CDFI credit unions work together to combat poverty.
Every year, B Lab recognizes the top-performing B Corps creating the greatest impact through their businesses. Honorees are recognized for having the highest environmental, community, customer, worker and overall impact by earning a score in the top 10% on the B Impact Assessment, as well as a list recognising B Corps with the greatest impact improvement (the changemakers). These businesses are proving that competing not only to be best in the world but best for the world is a winning strategy, and they can lead the way as mainstream businesses join our movement. This year, 4 CDBA members were named Best for the World: Beneficial State Bank, Spring Bank, Sunrise Banks, and Virginia Community Capital.
City First Bank of DC has released their 2018 impact report in addition to an anthology highlighting their 25th anniversary. The anthology tells the historic and vibrant stories of social impact that have been critical to City First's community economic development over the past twenty-five years. City First was chartered with a mission of investing intentionally in low wealth neighborhoods to revitalize historic corridors like U Street and H Street. City First is committed to nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and families. In this anthoogy, you will meet the social entrepreneurs that dared to rebuild our urban landscape.
Planters Bank announces that Alan Hargett is assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer on September 1, 2019. Hargett, a native of Ruleville, began his banking career with Planters as a management trainee in the Planters Indianola office in 1989 the same year he earned his Bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University. He currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Planters Bank. Hargett is a member of the Planters Board of Directors and serves on the board and executive committee of the Mississippi Bankers Association.
A decade after big banks needed government support to dig out of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve is slowly, but steadily, making a series of regulatory changes that could chip away at new requirements put in place to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown. Some of the changes, seemingly incremental and technical on their own, could add up to a weakening of capital requirements installed in the wake of the crisis to prevent the largest banks from suffering the kind of destabilizing losses that imperiled the United States economy. Another imminent change will soften a rule intended to prevent banks from making risky bets with customer deposits. Fed officials and others who support the changes, including big banks, say the Fed is engaging in what they call “tailoring” — a regulatory correction that will bring greater efficiency to standards written in the heat of a meltdown. But some current and former Fed officials worry that the central bank and its fellow regulators are giving large banks, which are making big profits, an unnecessary gift that could leave the economy exposed in the next downturn.
The Mississippi Backwater Flood of 2019 has been a devastating event for the residents of the South Delta in Mississippi. The people, farms, businesses, homes, and wildlife have been affected for months with the impact lasting for years to come. Bank of Anguilla has been a huge part of the community for 115 years and will continue to support and provide relief to the South Delta in helping overcome this disaster.
Legacy Bank and Trust invited Rep. Billy Long (MO-07) to their offices over the Congressional Recess to discuss the importance of CDFIs in the community. Pictured from left to right are: Brandon Taylor, CFO of Legacy Bank; Rep. Billy Long (MO-07); John Everett, President and CEO of Legacy Bank; and Brett Mager, Chief Lending Officer of Legacy Bank.
The relative rarity of banks in nonwhite neighborhoods is exacerbating the racial wealth gap by leaving African Americans more reliant on expensive financial services such as payday lending institutions, according to Reuters, citing research by McKinsey & Co. The study found that majority-white counties have an average of 41 financial institutions per 100,000 people, compared to 27 in nonwhite majority neighborhoods. It also found banks in majority-black neighborhoods tend to require a higher minimum account balance, with an average minimum of $871 in black neighborhoods compared to $626 in white neighborhoods.