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good afternoon I am Denise Roland Barnes publisher of the Washington and former newspaper and I'm here at we act radio network and we have a very serious discussion today about can you imagine a world without banks this is our Facebook live digital townhall and we're here really talking with folks from one of the oldest banking institutions in Washington DC industrial Bank I am so excited to have not to have this discussion but to have experts with us today to talk about the issue of a world without banks and we have with us Patricia Mitchell who is the executive vice president of industrial bank welcome to the show and Jacquie Bowles who's the senior vice president director of retail banking so welcome you know industrial bank as I said is the oldest black owned bank in the District of Columbia and actually in a DC metropolitan area and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and community development financial institution you're a member of both of those you know this conversation came about due to an article that was published in The Wall Street Journal and it's a very serious article that was published about in the month of August and the title of the article is black owned bank struggle community sounds alarm and I'm just going to take a minute to talk about what Sharon done the author or the reporter for this story wrote in the lead paragraphs of that article and she talked about the fact that there were six CEOs of black owned banks who locked themselves in a New Orleans conference room for more than a day in late 2016 and surrounded by them were papers drawing boards and powerpoints which they used to strategize ways to reverse a trend 15 years in the making in the decline of their own banking sector B Doyle Mitchell the president of industrial bank was at that meeting and I think what caused this crisis which they've described in black banking is that the number of black owned banks operating in the u.s. has been dropping steadily for the past 15 years and fell to 23 maybe 22 this year the lowest level in recent history according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and that has left many african-american communities short of access to capital and traditional financial services according to some banking experts so this is opportune time to really talk about how we reverse this trend and so I'd like to again welcome to both of you and give you an opportunity to tell me a little bit about yourselves how you got into the banking business and most importantly what is it important to have black instant banking institutions in the black community and Patricia I'll start with you thank you thank you I'm Patricia images of the Bank Jesse Mitchell the bank started in 1934 because there was not any place where blacks could go in the Washington DC area to borrow money they could deposit money anywhere but they could not borrow money and there was no black bank there at that time prior to 1934 there was a black bank called Industrial Savings Bank that opened in 1913 and then it closed in 1932 when President Roosevelt came into office and during the Depression and he declared all of the banks in the country to close until the federal government gave the okay to open and then Industrial Savings Bank here in Washington DC was not given the okay to open so that left this whole area with no bank and no place for blacks to borrow money so my grandfather and other men because there weren't women necessary a lot of women doing that kind of thing then we certainly want to give a Handclap to you for keeping the tradition going as a woman so they opened industrial bank of Washington and we are industrial bank so the the importance of why the bank opened then is just as important as it is now and that is to lend money in areas in financial deserts in Ward 7 and 8 to small businesses in to mortgages so that people can buy their homes and small businesses can grow because black banks and community banks in general do most of their lending to small businesses last year we lent 76% of our of our dollars to small businesses and that's businesses with revenues less than a million dollars and that really is the backbone of this country as small businesses everyone thinks it's the Walmarts and the Kmart's and the Macy's of the world but really most of the businesses in this country are small businesses Jackie tell us a little bit about yourself good morning thank you so my name is Jacqueline Bowles I'm the senior vice president of retail banking I've been with industrials since 2009 and from my perspective I love the community involvement the commitment that we have to the community and so just to piggyback on what Patricia said we provide financial literacy which is critical and I will community the lack of education with relatives of finances and so we are a relationship bank we meet the needs of the community we're out in the community in all areas and all aspects we work closely with the church community with nonprofit organizations with schools and just to be able to provide that access to information that is so relative to entrepreneurship to own home ownership just being able to run a decent household a family household we provide those basic skills so the question I didn't get answered because we know that there this is a Facebook live interview Town Hall but some people might be curious about how each of you got into banking I know you had the family relationship but I did and actually I never planned to go into banking to be honest a lot of times the kids run away and do something else yeah and I actually went to school for Design and Merchandising and and after I graduated I needed a job so I asked my father said can I have a job and so he gave me a job and it was part-time and then it became full-time and then I looked up 30 years later and this is this is what I'm doing but when I was a teenager though I did work at the banks the bank in the in the summer time and one of the things that I always enjoyed was how everybody knew everybody and how we were really able to help people in need and our seniors if if they came in and asked for huge sums of money and you know senior citizen didn't need that large amount of money back then we were allowed to call their family and say why does your mother need $5,000 in cash and we were able to say no I'm not giving it to you because somebody really may be trying to defraud them so I really enjoyed just just the closeness and everybody knew everybody Jacqueline how about yourself so I graduated from Bowie State University and was working in a retail store on Cole Mandy at the time over in Largo and I then went to Bank of America went through their Maps program went to a couple of other financial institutions and then landed here where I'm living my dreams primarily because of the community involvement and just being able to really feel the impact of working for a minority bank I see what what happens I see lives being transformed I see people making strategic moves financially as a result of their interactions with associates that work at industrial Bank and great background I want those of you all who are in the Facebook viewing audience to know that in the industrial bank's digital team is actively monitoring and responding responding to questions via industrial banks Facebook live and react radios YouTube live so know that we are taking we're looking out for your questions and we're glad that you've joined us and if we are unable to give you an immediate response we don't want you to think that we've forgotten about you that the team will respond to you soon after the programming but make sure that we hear from you so we want to begin with the fact that in the District of Columbia particularly in Ward 3 there are 74 banks and 121 141 actually ATMs we want to contrast that to a community like Ward 7 where there's only one bank and two ATMs now we are actually here in Ward 8 on Martin Luther King Avenue where we act radio is located and we are fortunate to have more banking institutions but I think we're more fortunate because we also have industrial bank right around the corner of Good Hope Road but I want to ask you what do you think the impact of what we're calling now financial deserts what kind of impact is that having on minority communities particularly but on communities in general sure so it's critical it's a detrimental impact the the distance number one to be able to get to an institution that's able to you know Supply on financial resources that you need and financial is you know solutions but secondly those individuals that don't have access to a bank they're using alternative banking measures and on average of spending in excess of $800 an annual basis money orders check cashing locations and so it's a debt has a detrimental effect and then there's the unawareness and their lack of trust because they don't have experience with a well trusted or a bank or facility operates with integrity and ethics Industrial bank ties and so to answer your question it has a detrimental effect some of the things that we do to reach those people we host a variety of free seminars first-time homebuyer seminars small business Expos realtor breakfasts just basic financial literacy we had one at 11th in U Street not so long ago that Patricia was the keynote speaker that went exceptionally well and so we meet our community where they are we rotate these seminars so that we're able to reach those that may not otherwise be able to you know come to the bank we have strategic partnerships that are able to you know talk to those people that are unbanked and give them second chances and so we realized the detrimental effect of doing everything that we can on a daily basis to counter that and the surcharges when it has says you give your answer to also respond to the fact that I mean Industrial had is Landmark Bank one there on 11th in you and then of course on Georgia Avenue but the bank has expended expanded its footprint and so as you respond can you talk about why you selected the communities that you went to to us to serve well the bank as you said the landmark office is at 11th in U and that was in the heart of the black community in 1934 that's where all the blacks did business and blacks did business with each other and that's why they knew each other and there was two primary black communities at that time and that was the Shaw neighborhood and the other primary black community was Georgetown which is hard for some people to believe but it was and so it just made sense that we would have our bank there where everybody knew each other everybody did business with each other and the other Oh in reference to Georgia Avenue that was we opened that branch in 1962 and that was a changing neighborhood at that time it's changing again but it was a changing neighborhood then and in order to buy that building we had to have somebody posed as white in order to buy that building because the owner would not sell it to two blacks so so but again I mean with this but we I want you to expound upon you know what it means to have a financial desert we're talking about food deserts and they seem to overlay each other where there's food desert is financial desert will probably come up with other terms as things go on but what does that mean in the financial desert well it to piggyback what Jackie was saying in terms of Ward seven and eight if if we're not here then we're not making loans to to small businesses and again I cannot stress how how critical that is because as I said those small businesses is really the backbone of this country and most of our black businesses are small business businesses it's also important that we support one another as if we did like we did in the nineteen thirty four s and like they did in Tulsa Oklahoma on black Wall Street where all the businesses were supporting one another and when desegregation came then blacks had more options and so that that's when the decline of fine financial institutions and educational institutions started to decline in terms of support so Community Development financial institutions invest about sixty percent of their assets in local and small businesses you've made a very emphatic point about that but what are the greatest benefits of investing money through a community bank for those who you know we we in some sense we have arrived in some ways we have larger businesses and and so what is the benefit of actually investing in a community bank well the more the more money that's deposited in our bank the more money we get to lend out I mean that's that's banking 101 if we don't have deposits we can't lend and we do a lot of lending most of our lending is in Washington DC and Maryland and with a lot of those dollars going to Prince George's County so if we don't have we don't have those dollars we cannot lend we do a lot of mortgages commercial loans SBA loans and commercial real estate that is in churches oh my goodness I cannot forget about the churches because we've been lending to churches since the very beginning in 1934 in fact we were lending to churches when larger majority banks did not want to lend to churches because they were always nervous that they may have be on the front page of a newspaper that they had to foreclose on a church and none of them wanted that that reputation and they would call us and ask if we would do the lending to the churches they would keep the deposits for their customer and it would still be their customer but what we make the loans and so we've always done lending to churches now majority bangs fine how lucrative it is and now everybody is lending to churches what I've been finding at the branch level is that our community will come in and they'll open a checking account and say I've done my part you know I put $100 or $500 into the account and I've done my part and for a bank deposits just a single serve account is like a liability because it costs us money to maintain those accounts and so really if I had a call to action it would be to allow us to be your top choice bank to be a top wallet card the car that you swipe when you have your transactions the accounts that you use to pay your bills the place that houses your savings account and your credit cards and so we need the full relationship in order to be able to have the impact that we're speaking about today so just having a simple account with us and putting a small deposit in it doesn't really move the block anyways but we really need to have that relationship that household in totality so at a point yes so the that brings me to the next question about access to finances in the african-american communities I mean are we short on assets and traditional financial services I mean can you could you survive off of investments by just black folks well the community has changed a lot and although we are a black bank we're also a community bank okay and so we don't try to survive offer just black people even though we want black people but also everybody to support us because we really are a community bank and the demographics as you know in DC have changed so much around our banks I mean we want to support them as well does do you think our community as african-americans do you think that we really understand what the crisis is I mean we don't hear these numbers often like The Wall Street Journal article from a hundred and whatever that that number was was a hundred and originally the number of banks and now we're down to 22 or 23 and that number seems to be moving the needle seems to be moving in the wrong direction pretty advanced and it was crisis there were 55 Bank black banks in the US when I started in banking in the 80s and now it's down to 22 and we lost two black things this year one in Chicago which they were talking about in the article but also the other one is in Virginia I can't think of the name down near Lynchburg Virginia it was a small black bank that had been in existence for almost 100 years so we lost to this year where's the other minorities the other minority communities they're their banks are increasing so there's 75 Asia American banks right now there are 39 Hispanic banks and 18 Native American banks and those minorities haven't even been in this country as long
s we have so we're going in one direction and they're going in another direction but that's because they're dollar stays in their communities longer in the Asian community their dollars stays in their community almost 30 days the dollar in our community stays six hours so it and people don't really think about it and they don't know that that's what the statistic is but if you think about okay when I get my paycheck what do I do with it okay do I spend it at a black business or am I at the restaurants and lounges that are that are majority owned in the grocery stores and we don't have a lot of grocery stores like we once did in our communities so when I go grocery shopping with my paycheck where are you going where you're going to giant or Whole Foods or Safeway so the dollar just doesn't stay in our community very long I think it was a great book that [Music] you all have been working with her and her mission and actually in New York life as well no to them necessarily but a plug because they were successful and so that's what it seems like the banks are doing now I'm trying to tell that story yeah how difficult it is for us to do business with ourselves but the fact that if we don't do it right then we will have no one to do business with absolutely man and so we talked about your you Street location we also talked about Georgia Avenue tell us where where else you can find an industrial sure Community Bank so we have one in North East near Benning Road by right by the shrimp boat we that's been there since 1965 Wow okay a metro center right across from Metro Center on 13th and F Street we also have anacostia 1800 Martin Luther King jr. Avenue and then we have to in Prince George's County one in Oxon Hill Maryland right off a John Hanson laying across from River town and farmersville I'm all for Pennsylvania Avenue by Marlowe furniture Road yes and so and that's what the question I asked before I mean you industrial has expanded its footprint I mean you have your options they're available to people not only in the district but in to Prince George's County what what has that meant for the bank I just want to say an opportunity to really give that bear hug on to an expanded community because we are growing in Prince George's County we are participating in many of their organizations sitting on many of their boards we're involved in the progressive movement within the district and within the county and so it just gives us the opportunity to you know be heard and be seen in the experience I'm by a larger population and we do want to do more business in the areas that are considered financial deserts here in Ward 7 and 8 so we want to lend money so that the businesses here can prosper I know that your your brother Doyle is out across the country trying to spread the word about the importance of black banks absolutely and community banks and you know we're I'm wondering [Music] what can be what is being said what is the message you talked a little bit about it before but what is the message that we want our communities to understand or the community in general to understand about why is this s there's a necessity right now to make that investment to provide so that businesses have are able to gain more capital because lack of capital is a big problem in our communities to have more small businesses and have traditional financial services as Jackie was saying earlier if they don't have traditional financial services than they're paying high rates in order to cash checks etc you know going to the check cashing places so that that's really the importance of black banks and as I said the financial deserts we want to lend money to those places we've always lent money to those kind of neighborhoods so the we've gotten a couple questions from our Facebook viewers and one of the things one of the questions is can a national or multinational think-tank be convened to develop a strategy for creating a black secondary market one if you have some idea of what this question might mean as it relates to secondary market and then I would think that the think tank began with those six yeah thank president New Orleans who sat down to figure out how we're going to address this issue yeah that's exactly the kind of thing that they talked about and we talked about it our the National Bankers Association is the Organization for minority banks the Association for minority banks and that discussion comes up all the time that's why the six individuals got together and how can we help our black banks when they're in trouble and so we're always having those kind of discussions is there a role for others to play in that conversation though investing in black banks is is a huge need it might be people with large sums of money that want to invest large banks can actually invest in smaller banks and get CRA credit or individuals may want to buy stock I have occasionally I'll have somebody call and say I want to buy some stock at your bank and so we can make that happen because we do have stock available so if somebody wants to do that you know let us know good and what would they they would just call the bank yeah but they can ask for me so and then what about also which is another question how does industrial Bank CRA compliance which is the Community Reinvestment Act yes how does the compliance matrix compare with those of other banks well we typically get outstanding so let's talk about what CRA is first of all if you could just explain to our viewers what what does that investing in low to moderate-income neighborhood okay and is that now required is there some percentage or Susan yes thanks that's that are required to do to meet CRA standards that's correct and that's why there are some banks out there that want to invest in certain banks because they get CRA credit okay so if a large majority bank wants to invest in industrial bank they'll get CRA credit and/or do business in certain neighborhoods or make loans in certain neighborhoods they get CRA credit for it so that's the incentive for them to do that there wasn't CRA would they do that you know maybe not but you all have to meet the same thing we do right okay and so how are you all doing here CRA yep we have outstanding outstanding okay of CRA but this is what we've always done we've always invested loans in places like Ward seven and eight in churches small business mortgages so that people could buy their homes and when I first got into banking there was the term redlining where you were discriminating against making a loan on Martin Luther King Avenue so banks had to be really careful about that and that's how zra came in into place it's interesting because the Wall Street Journal article actually alluded to the fact that redlining is returning have you seen evidence of that in the DC area I'm not so sure that in Washington DC itself it exists because a lot of the neighborhood's have changed Prince George's County may because they have not changed as much as Washington DC so to qualify for you were mentioning about CRA to qualify for CRA points you don't get as many points because all of DC has changed and the income the income has changed in the different neighborhoods but I'm sure this is kind of might be a little bit off topic but then I think it's probably where industrial comes in you know a lot of black owned property mm-hmm land and the district has been lost yes and then for those who are actually trying to invest in a district yeah sometimes it's difficult and acknowledge you you're agreeing knowledge in that what what is the bank doing to try to keep a balance well in reference to the black owned property we do have estate planning seminars so that people can plan and we do that every year so that people can plan do a state plan because that's one of the things that's really lost in in our community meaning that people die and the properties lost the taxes or what what happens or well I see where a lot of the heirs start to fight over the idea of getting money some want to keep the property some don't and they end up selling it and usually don't necessarily sell it for as much as they could actually get but some of the heirs might want the idea of getting $10,000 is a lot of money to some heirs a lot of properties have turned over and are no longer in the black community I see that quite a bit so but when you know again the thing about black banks or our community banks that there are folks who sometimes are intimidated by walking into a bank we no matter what as black people sometimes have this a sense of pride where we don't want to ask for things and we don't want to ask for as much as we can get so recognizing that is do all recognize that and and what is it that industrial can do or does to make it easier for our community to do its banking sure so like I was saying earlier we go so where our customers are and so we provide on a quarterly basis we actually have a rotation of free seminars such as the estate planning seminar on first-time homebuyer where we have our branch managers are present the appropriate representatives that work in those particular fields whether it's business estate planning insurance or present to be able to have those one-on-one interactions with those participants because I think that relationship is critical and when you have someone that you able just to sit down and have a conversation with that let that fear I'm sort of melts away a little bit and you feel more comfortable and you're able to disclose more so I really believe that relationship is key which is why we host those and those seminars the other thing that that I'm seeing is with Millennials they're not necessarily trying to buy property hmm if there is a you know this there is a whole lot of rental apartments out there they cost a lot of money oh yeah much as the mortgage yes right so somehow we got to figure out how to shift their thinking from renting to buy but we do come across Millennials that are very content with with renting right not even own in cars they Oberer like to use uber and lyft and so mm-hmm well so does my mother so I'm but but so you know one of the she's excuse me yes but what how are we you know a lot of folks have this belief that that are blank our banks our community banks are small banks can't provide the same services that the larger banks can and that there's they used utilize other banks out of the need for convenience you know online banking and all these other services what does Industrials say what is your response to that argument about why they may not be using coming to and well we provide all the same services there's other banks to talk deposits and I already spoke about the loans but we also provide mobile banking online banking what other service and low deposit captioner actually let me just take a moment to tell you we actually have a very robust rewards checking program call Kasasa and we are paying 2.5% APY on checking account balances up to $15,000 or giving 3% cashback on everyday purchases if a customer needs to be small qualifications one is that they log on to the online account portal at least once a month and you know most of us check our account balance daily number two that you would see agree to receive each statements as we're trying to be more environment environmentally conscious instead of receiving paper statements if you receive each statements which is secure and efficient and then the third is something else that we do every day swipe that debit card so if you swipe your debit card two-and-a-half times per week and you meet those three qualifications we will pay you that I'm robust interest rate plus we realize that we're we're community banking we have a limited TM access and so we will refund up to $25 monthly if a customer has to use alternative ATMs and so we compensate for you know the things that we may have you know shortfalls that we may have but like Patricia said as far as the products the everyday products and services we have those we have those and so customers just need to come in experience it ask some questions visit our website and you know just give us an opportunity so banks remind me particularly the smaller and black owned banks remind the crisis that you're facing reminds us of the crisis that we and the black press may be facing when the black church is facing a whole different mindset now about how we gain information and how we get services what is the future of what industrial banks gonna do our banking in general what's the what's the future look like in banking that you all are preparing for well we do have to continue to invest a lot of money in technology and that is you know it's it's an ongoing issue it's always about technology and the services that meet basically our Millennials because they're the ones they're our future so and it's just on its ongoing challenge but that's what we do we have a an advisory board of Millennials so that we meet with them once a quarter and hear from them what are what is it they want and I and everybody on our advisory board they're not necessarily customers and this was the brainchild of our president Doyle my brother and he he intentionally had people on the board that are not customers so some are customers some are not and even if they had never heard of the bank that's what we want to know too because not everybody is heard of our bank industrial bank so technology and that's the technology and Millennials are the conversations that come up all the time so what that Millennial I'm impressed by that a millennial advisory board what has been one thing maybe that you can think of that they've come up that the bank actually tried I mean we know not everything works and sometimes it does but you know accept willingness to try I think it's good that you try actually having the board do anything that they came up with well we changed our website as a result of a meeting they had some ideas of how we should do it and we did and then they want us to always have a call to action that was that came across and we've only been doing it for not even a year yet I don't think so you know it's still coming along we've probably had four meetings or so but that is what we've done so far yeah the other thing that we learned is that they really do care about what's going on in the community so they gave us humongous kudos for our community involvement and the services that we provide not necessarily related to finance for just being hands on just meeting the needs of the community so I don't know what our time is like until we're gonna do a little time check but I do want to ask those if there are any more questions for Patricia or Jacqueline to go ahead and submit those questions and of course if we don't get to those questions we will get to them eventually from with the Ivy team but you mentioned call to action and so that that's I don't want to leave this conversation without you all giving the call to action because again and this has been a great conversation but we cannot overlook the fact that what we're looking at is a crisis and I want to really leave that on the minds of our viewers and listeners you know there is a crisis when it comes to the continued existence of black banks so what would you what would be your call to action yes I do so first and foremost because I'm able to interact with consumers on a daily basis and I just see in general financial detriment in households my first call to action is for individuals to have a relationship with their money so reach out to us for financial literacy we provide those sessions free of charge we have everything from banking 101 savings and investments understanding and managing your credit homebuyer seminars we are a full-service bank we are here to help people meet their financial dreams and so my first call to action is you have to do something different and it begins with yourself putting yourself on a budget tracking your spending so that you can create a savings account my second thing is to my second call to action would be to please please please come and support your local community bank and if you're in our area come to industrial bank when you support the the bank you are actually doing so many things that you're not even aware of you're c
eating jobs you're affecting how our youth view themselves because now they're they have a job and they're not out on the corner now they see a future because they see different businesses sprouting up in their communities and so because we're able to reinvest in those jobs we need more customers to generate those relationships those deposits when we're able to then give out loans on you know whether it's a mortgage or a small business loan so we have to do something different we have to seek out minority-owned businesses in our community and one of the things that I love about our presidents that he does not only talk to talk but he walks the walk and if I can just give you one example there's a black own paper company up in Columbia Maryland freedom paper company owned by Camus Muhammad we have severed all ties with a local vendor and we now bank wide utilize canoes Muhammad's business and so it begins there I'm just doing something different making a conscious and intentional decision to support and to do your part in our community that's my ass and to give you some statistics that thank you back what Jackie is saying about other minorities Asian banks are over a billion dollars okay well first let me just tell our list and our viewers that our bank is 400 million dollars in assets because we didn't even talk about the size of our bank with seven locations so Asian banks are over a billion dollars the largest is 35 billion dollars in total assets three are over five billion Hispanic banks are are over a billion dollars as well we don't have any black banks that are over a billion dollars the largest in the Hispanic community is 31 billion and six are over five billion 20 the 22 African American banks right now that are still in existence total four point nine billion dollars so with the the Hispanic and the Asian to me it triggers a thought of global business and where are the black banks when it comes to their global and it's you know let me know if I'm off course on this question but with their global interaction because well I know that there are a lot of resources here a lot of people send money home a lot of money sent back and forth there are investments in particularly in Asian community a lot of investment in real estate in the United States so I can kind of see why there would be that large amount of investment or the value of the banks but what where does where do the black banks stand well we're just here in the u.s. most are so we don't do globally a lot of business but we can do anything in in the US people can open accounts online any place in the country our lending though is primarily in this area from Richmond to Baltimore that's where our our lending is primarily and then the wear black banks are located it's primarily on the East Coast and Louisiana there's a large black bank there and there's one in California but most of them on the on the East Coast and there's a few and people some people don't know this that there are black banks still in existence that are older than we are mechanics and farmers in Durham North Carolina started in 1908 and there's several I think there's probably about five that are older than we are mm-hmm so is that is that an opportunity though I mean as we look at a continent like Africa where they're I mean we talk about the poverty there but there's a lot of wealth there and there's a lot of business going back and forth now investments where is there an opportunity for black banks to be a part of that I'm not sure if there's an opportunity we would need to grow in size in order to do more to explore more things because there's just there's also a lot of regulatory issues to be concerned with and if we can grow in size and if the community can help us grow inside size then we certainly can do a lot more things like that because the regulation is is big and that's one of the things that's gotten I won't say out of control but I'll just say it's it's growing but that that was where I was going next actually the impact of regulation I'm sure it's it's become more complex and and I'm wondering what factor it's playing in the demise of some of our banks well it means more expenses it means more software it means more people to just do that aspect of the business behind the scenes dealing with regulatory issues software and more human resources so that one of the things that the black things we have discussed over and over again is how we can combine our back offices and we spend a lot more time talking about those kind of things not as and want to spend more time talking about business development right but we have to spend a lot of time talking about risk management regulatory issues and the software to support all of that is it is it you know if you could think of what not only in that regard but I guess I'm wondering to do the back do the banks have lobbyists folks who are really the black bankers who actually lobbying for them on Capitol Hill and in the state houses and the legislators sensitive to the needs of black banks well we that's was the National Bankers Association does that's the association of minority banks all minority banks but most most of the members are black black banks because we started we being black banks started the Association in 1930 somewhere around 1932 I think but that's what the National Bankers Association does there's a lobbying arm for you oh and who's the is there a champion on the hill who actually is looking out for the Maxine Waters who's one of the champions she's chair or a member of the financial committee yep and then there was so why are you thinking though Jacqueline you mentioned jobs you know if one were thinking about pursuing a career in banking what is one of the potential areas of employment sure because we're a community bank on all of our departments are local so the opportunities are vast so not only do you have those positions that you see when you walk into a branch environment but we have a marketing department our accounting department our legal department real estate Human Resources and so when we're out in the community we talk to particularly when we're on college campuses the career opportunities within a community bank you know it's just plentiful and so it will range depending on what the position is so for a bank teller cash handling experience preferably a high school diploma at minimum when you get to the personal banker one that opens accounts and originates loans and we would like to see some type of experience in that college degree would be nice same for branch manager but outside of the environment it probably would be just at least two years prior experience and or education in the in the field that you're looking for and as we and we have needs for people that all the back office people you know it's not just who use who the front facing people but underwriters janitors mm-hm couriers you know we have all in its Jackie setting human resources so although we have a hundred and fifteen employees that help run the bank and it sounds like you're gonna need more people in the area of technology yes and we do have and we do have a nice-size staff of technology but we always have to stay abreast of what the the latest trend is because it just keeps coming faster and faster but do you think and I have to tell this story I mean you know we for those of us who have children we all are considered walking banks to them financial institutions right and so you know whenever there's a crisis they call you know Mom Bank of America or dad you know industrial bank whatever the case may be and so now they've come up with all these new apps right where money can be transferred the blink of an eye yeah how does that impact how will that impact our banks opportunity I think that it gives us an opportunity like Patricia said to be able to offer more innovative products and services access and convenience our priority right now and so people need to be able to conduct transactions you know as they're boarding a bus or as they're sitting at a red light and so we have to make sure that we're available providing those type of services and that access for them but this isn't considered a threat to the bank you know I don't know would you say it's a threat well we do have to do we have to monitor our actions because fraud is another really big issue for banks a lot of fraud and a lot of dollars and being a small bank you know a $50,000 fraud transaction can really impact us in a major way so there is a lot of fraud that's why there are back-office people that are monitoring different things but in order to continue to build our relationships we have to offer that that's why we have the the mobile banking I mean we have pop money so we have all of those the things that basically the community wants so do you see I mean once upon a time and I remember years ago before there were ATMs there was a concern that the brick-and-mortar bank regardless of whether was a black bank community bank whatever bank was going to go away yeah but you're still here despite in in lesser numbers but do you see a time when the Institute the banking institution as we see it today will look different and you qualify that still as opportunity does that still mean so long as people invest that they're still in industrial presence well it it means that they do look different now we just did our branch at eleven thing.you we spend a lot of money renovating that because it needed a facelift so branches are looking trendier and I must say though I like that the facade is still the same I don't know if it's historic preservation or one no actually we have we're working on the facade now okay yeah you know it and we're cleaning it up outside because it is a historic building but we're cleaning it up so it'll look nicely and we're gonna put the clock back up people were very disappointed the clock came down but we only took it down to clean it and once we took it down then people thought we were closed right so so but that's going back up probably the end of October but the branches are looking trendier and also branches don't have to be as large because not as many people come in so I know since I've been in banking for the last 30 plus years there was there was a trend of banks opening more bank branches and then they were handed fewer branches and they had larger branches and then they had smaller branches because people weren't coming in and now they want people to come in so they can cross out so we've had a lot of a lot of trends over the last 50 years and even ours banking hours have gone from longer to shorter back to getting long day yeah when I first started in banking the hours were 10:00 to 2:00 mmm and then we went 9:00 to 5:00 and then we went 9:00 to 3:00 now we're dying to find good now we're not yes now we're 9:00 to 5:00 and on Fridays 9:00 to 6:00 and then I'll Saturdays and that was another trend Saturdays that we when I first started in banking we had Saturday hours and then the trend in banking was okay well we can save money and this was throughout banking we can save money so let's cut out the Saturday hours so we cut outside of the hours and then the trend was let's have more hours so then things started opening on Saturday and some of the branches were open and not our branches but just some of the banks had branches that were 9:00 to 4:00 on Saturdays and then they cut him back to 9:00 to 12:00 yeah well as consumers we've seen all that yeah and we've I think appreciate the fact that Industrial has heard from its customers and it's flexible which is why we're always yeah yeah we've been open on Saturdays for a while we got a question here which is how do we or how do how do we address issues of retirement long-term care and wealth accumulation that are affecting the african-american community well that's what we do in our estate planning seminar that we have often because that's a huge need and we're also have a relationship with New York Life the to assist with long-term care and annuities and what's life insurance all those things we're having an upcoming seminar date to be determined in November at our 11th in U Street location about the importance of retirement and how to better position yourself for retirement so if the customers stay tuned and visit our website as soon as we have a date within the next two weeks that will be posted on our website it's because I don't really don't think people are really in my generation are really planning for retirement like they probably should because once you get to be a certain age I don't know that my philosophy is I wouldn't take out a 30-year mortgage any more on that but yet sometimes people do that means you're paying a mortgage until what you're 80 right so there's always and a lot of times loan officers don't don't bring this up as an option you can you can do a 15-year mortgage but you can also do a 20 or 25 year off mortgage amortization which is not usually brought up as an option the rate is the same typically as a 30-year mortgage but you can do 20 or 25 years or you can pay down give an extra payment every year which is supposed to cut your mortgage from 30 years to 23 years if you just do one extra payment a year and you can do that directly to principal mm-hmm so I think you know that that is a great concern wealth accumulation I think that we've seen another era of a loss of wealth and then you talked Patricia about you know I'm gonna put myself in our generation but our generation that's not prepared for retirement but I'm even much more concerned about the Millennials right who you know at least we started off with the knowledge that we had to get a job or work some places where we would begin to prepare for retirement I mean whether it's Social Security what-have-you well they're more entrepreneurial yes and so a lot of what we came into this retirement period with is I'm concerned about whether they're going to be prepared for and a lot of them probably don't even have health insurance yeah because they're because they're self-employed so that's well there's that penalty that you have to pay this enough to convince them that they need to do something but you're right you're right so I'm hoping that these workshops are being well attended yes and at the same time that you're those who are participating to need to support a black Bank like industrial yes our workshops are yes and I wanted you Jaqueline also talked to talk about some creative things that you'd mentioned with the AME Church and I think the was in collective empowerment you got a couple of minutes left can you just address those sure so industrial Bank actually for 20 years since the inception of the collective empowerment group today which formerly was known as the CBG collective banking group we've been the primary bank with them since inception and really what that is it's just a group of pastors ministers and primarily Prince George's County there are some from District of Columbia a few from Charles County that come together monthly and we meet the first Friday of every month just to discuss the role the responsibilities and how we can work collaboratively to address a myriad of needs within our communities so that's been very very powerful that's been very well attended and we really built some relationships and address some specific problems in our communities the AME conference is something that's in generation right now actually and so Bishop Davis who is the bishop of the second District AME conference I'm along with reverend jonathan weaver and then the presidents of the some of the banks that patricia mentioned earlier Harbor Bank mechanics and farmers industrial bank we are having sort of a pledge where those churches and their members will locate their community bank within their neighborhoods and go to them first and see that's the challenge if we were the top choice Bank things will look so different now in our Unity's and so I I'm really really hopeful and feel really confident that with this pledge and with this commitment and us reaching out to some of these AME churches and providing letting them experience what it really is to have a relationship bank or community being that cares and has such deep roots I'm just so excit
d to see what that will look like and so we're actually always always trying to form partnerships and bring our resources to the community that doesn't necessarily walk into the door to get ourselves known because I mean we have a powerful blow if we just come together with you know cooperative economics of collective responsibility and just working together imagine where we can be in the next 10 years so I don't want this program to end with folks thinking that industrial is going to close its doors tomorrow so we've got a future and still growing seven branches five in the district and two in Prince George's County and we're still always talking about different sites for our banking centers okay well I do and we do a lot of mortgage and commercial real estate and church loans and SBA loans we wanted to end on a positive note we are out of time but I want people to understand that this is a real crisis in the black community as it relates to black banks if you know somebody please go out and make an investment in the bag black Bank put your money there realizes this is very real and we need your support I want to thank the folks here we act radio of course I want to thank the two of you for being here and everybody at industrial bank and of course myself for joining us for this past hour has been a great experience and you will hear more so stay tuned thank you sir all right Thank You Denise
