Hope Credit Union to invest $1 billion to help people in the South

Hope Credit Union in Jackson, Mississippi, will provide $1 billion in financing to benefit more than 150,000 people in six Southern states during the next 10 years.

The money will "improve lives and close the racial and gender opportunity gaps" in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, the $536 million-asset credit union said in a press release.

The investment was catalyzed by a recent $92.6 million investment in Hope through the U.S. Department of Treasury's Emergency Capital Investment Program. 

Ken Gordon

"People in the Deep South are incredibly resilient, and can do anything, if they have the tools," Hope CEO Bill Bynum said in the press release. "With this historic investment by the Treasury, Hope will ensure that for families, entrepreneurs and communities in the Delta, in the Black Belt and in rural areas and inner cities throughout the Deep South, access to affordable financial tools will no longer be a barrier to their success."

Structured as regulatory capital, each dollar of federal funds allows Hope to attract up to $10 in deposits. Hope will use the ECIP funds to import deposits into places that lack local resources needed to finance businesses, homebuyers, affordable rental housing, health care facilities, schools, nonprofit service providers and other assets needed for families and communities to prosper.

Last year, Hope CU partnered with Goldman Sachs, seven cities and nine historically Black colleges and universities to invest in small businesses in the South.

Credit unions

How credit unions are improving outreach to minority communities

By offering financial education through local crisis centers and community groups — and following through with access to credit — many credit unions are building trust with people who had been wary of working with mainstream institutions.

By Victoria Zhuang

September 12

In 2020, Netflix announced plans to partner with Hope to make loans to more than 2,500 entrepreneurs, homebuyers and consumers of color.

Hope earned $120,000 in the first six months of 2022, an 87% decrease compared with a year earlier, according to call report data from the National Credit Union Administration.