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Several big banks have hired environmental professionals from far outside the world of banking to make sure banks' clients aren't doing things to threaten water quality, public health or worker safety. The executives' job is to protect their banks' credit books and reputations.
May 21 -
The Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund has allocated more than $3.5 billion in tax credit awards for low-income urban and rural communities.
June 16 -
Regulators would like banks to use their mobile banking services to reach the unbanked and underbanked. Some, including Southern Bancorp and BBVA Compass, are working to create mobile features that will help them compete with check cashers and payday lenders.
September 22 -
WASHINGTON Promontory Financial Group announced Friday that it had given financial awards to two small institutions that are expanding banking access to the underbanked.
November 21 -
The two cities join New York, L.A. and other cities in trying to force the banks that hold municipal deposits to make more loans in low-income neighborhoods. Some industry officials oppose them, while others welcome them.
October 22
Two community banks that focus on underbanked and low-income populations, City First Bank of D.C. and Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia, Ark., have joined an international group that promotes socially and environmentally responsible development.
The $1.2 billion-asset Southern Bancorp and the $236 million-asset City First Bank this week joined the Global Alliance for Banking on Values. The Dutch organization's members, which include banks and credit unions around the world, works toward promoting sustainable economic, social and environmental development.
City First is a U.S. Treasury Department-approved community development financial institution that receives bond guarantees or tax credits for loans it makes in low and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Additionally, City First's holding company, City First Enterprises, is a nonprofit that has developed an
Southern Bancorp, which operates branches in the Mississippi Delta and Southern Arkansas, has
Southern Bancorp is also community development financial institution and it has a significant business of making small, unsecured loans with low interest rates.
Three other U.S. banks are already members of the Global Alliance: Beneficial State Bank in Oakland, Calif.; First Green Bank in Mount Dora, Fla.; and New Resource Bank in San Francisco.
