This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

Despite both consumer and institutional interest in artificial intelligence continuing to grow across the financial services industry, the majority of leaders are still unsure about the technology and its potential uses — leaving a select group of executives to lead their organizations into the fray.  Arizent, the publisher of American Banker, surveyed 127 financial institution professionals to find out how traditional and generative AI is unfolding in the industry with respect to applications, risks versus rewards, impact on the workforce and more. Respondents represent banks ranging from less than $10 billion of assets to more than $100 billion of assets, as well as credit unions of all asset sizes. The results showed that familiarity is the largest hurdle for adoption. Tech-minded changemakers helping prepare their organizations for AI said the top two things they are doing are researching providers and attending industry conferences or events on AI. They are also creating w...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans to auction off a controlling stake in Birmingham, Alabama-based Alamerica Bank on Wednesday, a move that could result in Alamerica passing out of minority ownership. While a preliminary bidder’s list included several large Black-owned banks, it also included some non-minority bidders. Founded in January 2000, the $15.4 million-asset Alamerica is the smallest of the 17 remaining Black-owned banks in the United States. According to William Michael Cunningham, CEO at Creative Investment Research and an authority on Black-owned banks, the FDIC-owned shares were used as security for a $4 million loan from Silverton Bank. They passed into the FDIC’s possession following Atlanta-based Silverton’s failure in May 2009. The FDIC “certainly has the right to do this,” Cunningham said Tuesday, but he called it troubling that Alamerica might wind up outside the minority banking sector as a result of the auction. “If Alamerica is no longer Black-owned, that c...

Banks of all sizes are continuing to direct funds to minority-owned businesses months after the social unrest that followed last year’s death of George Floyd. JPMorgan Chase just announced plans to invest $40 million in four Black-run banks. Ally Financial, Banner, Citigroup, Texas Capital Bancshares and First Republic Bank joined JPMorgan in providing capital to help fund Broadway Financial’s pending acquisition of the $435.4 million-asset CFBanc in Washington. Four community banks — First National in Strasburg, Va.; Fauquier Bancorp in Warrenton, Va.; Eagle Financial Services in Berryville, Va.; and Potomac Bancshares in Charles Town, W.Va. — recently created a $1 million fund to provide loans to Black-owned businesses and farms in their markets. The latest efforts show that the banking industry is still evaluating ways to help underserved markets. “There’s no doubt we needed to do an assessment on what more we could do as a firm,” said Brian Lamb, global head of diversity and inclus...

An effort encouraging investors to buy stock in Black-run banks could create new challenges for the leaders of those companies. The Buying Black movement, which took root last week, led to sharp increases in the shares of companies such as Broadway Financial in Los Angeles, Carver Bancorp in New York and M&F Bancorp in Durham, N.C. An influx of new investors could increase pressure to improve shareholder returns, while any strategic effort designed to generate higher profits could also draw a backlash. At the same time, markets are fickle — most shares in Black-run banks have fallen significantly in recent days as some existing shareholders cashed out. Indeed, Broadway's biggest investor — who had been pushing for the company's sale — abruptly sold all of its stock after the value of its holdings soared. Leaders of Black-run banks contend that what they need more than capital is more partnerships with bigger banks to extend their reach to underserved custo...

Anyone still waiting for justice with respect to the role that large banks played in the financial crisis had to be disappointed in a New York appeals court's ruling in a case involving a settlement agreement between Citigroup Global Markets and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read more at: http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/appeals-court-ruling-in-citi-case-is-a-gift-to-big-banks-1067939-1.html Also see:  http://www.prlog.org/11948760-william-michael-cunningham-files-revised-brief-in-sec-vs-citigroup-2nd-cir-ct-of-ap.html