U.S. Treasury Helps Black-Owned Industrial Bank Serve Marginalized Communities

Funding from the U.S. Treasury and a community partnership is helping the Black-owned Industrial Bank help businesses and people in marginalized communities.

Insight News reported that The U.S. Treasury Department’s Emergency Capital Investment Program gave $82 million to Industrial Bank in June, which Industrial President and CEO B. Doyle Mitchell Jr. called historic.

“We’ll use the capital to grow,” Mitchell told Insight News. “We’ll use it to invest in our infrastructure and technology. The biggest thing is growth because the more we can grow, the more capital we will generate. It gives us the ability to make larger loans in our community because truthfully, it costs the same amount to make a $100,000 loan as it does a $1 million loan. And like most Black banks around the country, we have more loans with smaller loan sizes than our counterparts.

Industrial Bank has been in operation since 1988 and has branches in Washington D.C., Maryland ,and Harlem, NY.

Mitchell added the funding provides a great opportunity for Black banks across the U.S. as it gives them the ability to make an impact in communities for individuals, potential homeowners, businesses, and other organizations.

Industrial Bank is also creating an innovation campus with space it owns in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The bank has consolidated its staff which now resides in the same location; the extra space will be used for the campus. The bank is now working with the consulting firm Inncuvate and founder Mark Lawrence to develop and train young entrepreneurs.

Lawrence told Insight News the campus will work with partners in the Esports and STEM education industries to develop programming on the campus. Additionally, Industrial Bank and Lawrence will work with companies that focus on youth and adult workforce development initiatives.

“The purpose of the innovation center is to really bring global connectivity and outcomes to underrepresented communities around entrepreneurship. We’re trying to do it in two ways: with exposure to innovational technology for career readiness for youth and young adults, and by helping entrepreneurs to explore the tech economy and build capacity in their existing businesses,” Lawrence said.

Several large banks, including Citi and JPMorgan Chase, have poured millions into Black banks and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to improve their operations and Black businesses.

However, Black banks trail Asian and Hispanic banks in both the number of banks and assets. Nineteen Black-owned banks were carrying $7 billion in assets as of the first quarter of 2022, based on the “Mid-Year 2022 Minority Bank And Thrift Review” by Creative Investment Research.

In contrast , 77 Asian-owned banks carry $172 billion in assets and 33 Hispanic-owned banks carry $141.6 billion in assets during the same time. Simultaneously, 17 women-owned banks had assets of just over $9.75 billion.