Local Banks, Address Credit Mortgages and Money Management

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by Dwayne T. Ervin

As the federal government struggles with resolving the nations banking problem, local banks are reaching out to community residents on ways to better manage money.

Local community groups, Chatham Avalon Park Community Council; the Business Economic Revitalization Association; Chatham Business Association; Triangle Neighborhood Organization; Chesterfield Community Council; Park Manor Neighbors Community Council; West Chesterfield Community Association and Roseland Heights Community Council, came together recently to provide help on managing financial issues like credit and mortgages.

Representatives from financial institutions such as Seaway Bank & Trust, the largest black owned bank

in the Midwest; ShoreBank; JP Morgan Chase Bank; the Northern Trust Company; National City Bank

and Illinois Service Federal Savings all dispatched representatives out to address the public and to answerquestions. Representatives talked about credit, buying a home for the first time, mortgages, and retail lending.

We are old traditional lenders, said Virgil Booker, vice president of Seaway Bank & Trust. He said his

bank looks at more than credit when issuing a loan. Forty percent of Seaways customer base consists of churches, and the bank has formed a program called Church Partnership Initiative Program (CPI) to address the needs of churches.

Gloria King-Wright, an officer at ShoreBank, said the bank developed a mortgage rescue plan to respond to the overwhelming number of foreclosures and estimated that there are 27 million mortgage rescues.

We spend for what we want and beg for what we need...as a financial advisor, we help people start

planning. People are living from paycheck to pay check, so the next month or two weeks later after they get laid off, they cannot pay their bills, said Yolanda Forte of Waddell and Reed.

You have to have six months of income set aside before you plan anything, she advised.

On the issue of credit, Gloria Gayle, vice president of National City Bank said, We can never be healthy as a people until we can overcome, issues associated with poor credit. If a person does not learn how to manage their credit, they will fall into a black hole, she said.

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