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Southern Bancorp CEO, Darrin Williams, was recently presented the Supporting Organization of the Year award on behalf of Southern Bancorp for the community development bank’s efforts to support minority business growth from the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce during Minority Enterprise Development Week.
The rallying cry emerged after a summer that saw the nation, once again, engaged in discussions about race, policing, and inequality. Instead of just taking to the streets after the deaths of black men at the hands of police and the subsequent murder of officers, protesters were urged — through hashtags like #bankblack and #blackdollarsmatter — to deposit $100 each into black-owned banks. And for Boston-based OneUnited Bank, the nation’s largest black-owned bank, the impact of the “Bank Black” movement was almost immediate. The bank, which has struggled in recent years, added more than $10 million in deposits in less than a month, said Teri Williams, the bank’s president.
Banking in St. Paul is easy. Or at least when compared to Los Angeles, where David Reiling worked for First Interstate Bank fresh out of college. “The first two weeks I was there, the bank I was in got robbed three times,” Reiling said. That didn’t deter him, though. Reiling has made a career out of working in inner-city banks, finding his stride in developing communities through financial services. He’s been with St. Paul-based Sunrise Banks, which aims to bring financial empowerment to underserved populations, for 20 years. For the past 12 years he’s been CEO.
Learn about the 20 year old program in California called the California Organized Investment Network, or COIN. Through its various programs, COIN encourages and tracks insurance company reinvestment into low- and moderate-income areas of California.
Despite celebrating its 20th anniversary in August, COIN has never been permanent. Every few years, the state legislature has to reauthorize it, and the latest COIN reauthorization bill, passed last month, leaves out or severely limits key provisions of the program. Advocates will have to re-start the battle next year in order to restore COIN to its current capacity.
The number of community development banks is rising at a time when the ranks of other financial institutions are shrinking. The special-purpose banks — a subset of community development financial institutions — serve low- and moderate-income communities. By becoming CDFIs, banks — along with credit unions and other types of lenders — can apply for certain funding from the Treasury Department and other agencies.
First Southwest Bank and Bank of Anguilla discuss the reasons why they became CDFI certified banks and Jeannine Jacokes of the Community Development Bankers Association talks about the benefits of CDFI certification for the community banking industry.
Industrial Bank of Washington, D.C., typically opens 300 new accounts in six months. Thanks to the social media campaign #BankBlack, the bank opened 3,000 new accounts for a total of $6 million in just two months.
Emboldened by supportive comments from presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, community development banks including BankPlus, Neighborhood National Bank & Southern Bancorp are asking regulators for more leniency in areas such as disclosure fees and Bank Secrecy Act enforcement. The Community Development Bankers Association sent a letter in late June to Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen and other high-ranking Fed officials highlighting the trade group's concerns with elements of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Bank Secrecy Act and Basel III.
Mississippi has more CDFIs per capita than any other state. Its financial ecosystem is a unique place, where bankers and residents are coming to see one another as allies despite a difficult history. CDFI's are leading the way. "If we don't help our community, the community’s going to die" says Huey Townsend, President and CEO of Guaranty Bank & Trust. Powered by nearly $2.5 million in awards from the CDFI Fund, his institution has emerged as a leader in providing financial services to the poor, along with a handful of others including Bank of Anguilla in the region. Guaranty Bank & Trust was among the top providers of home loans in the 13 Delta counties where poverty is a persistent problem. Local CDFIs together made fully a third of housing loans here, while the large national banks that dominate home lending in most areas made only a handful.
First Security Bank & Trust is a recipient of the 2016 Innovation in Financial Education Award presented by NASDAQ and EverFi. The award recognizes First Security’s efforts to improve the financial capability of Americans through unique digital learning initiatives. First Security has partnered with EverFi to bring Common Cent$ to local students at no cost to schools or taxpayers, and has reached over 1,100 students since 2011.
Neighborhood Bancorp, the holding company for Neighborhood National Bank, announced today a definitive agreement that will result in doubling the bank's capital. The investment of $6 million is led by Stephen Taylor, Chairman of Chicago-based Taylor Asset Management, who is a noted investor in California community banks. "This agreement represents an important step in recapitalizing and positioning the bank for future growth," said Dan Yates, Neighborhood Bank's President and CEO.