Feedback: ShoreBank Didn't 'Earn' Infusion

In "ShoreBank Earned Big-Bank Infusion" [May 26], [Community Development Bankers Association Chief Executive] Jeannine Jacokes asserts that ShoreBank "proved that community development lending was not just safe and sound but also good business." This is exactly what it has not proved.

Indeed, its nonperforming loans and a financial condition which in other banks would have simply meant failure attest to the opposite conclusion.

So if ShoreBank "earned" its concessionary capital infusion, it did so as a worthwhile and politically-connected charitable organization — certainly not as a business.

Alex J. Pollock
Resident Fellow
American Enterprise Institute
Washington, D.C.

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