Saving ShoreBank

Shanita Bigelow |

While Clergy, public officials and residents hold press conference to keep it open, community says ShoreBanks mission too big to fail Concerned residents, clergy and public officials gathered in front of ShoreBank (7936 S. Cottage Grove) for a press conference last Thursday. Angered over the closing of Shore Bank, speakers urged the government to do whatever it takes to keep the bank open. I stand here demanding that the federal government do whats necessary to keep our bank alive, said Alderman Freddrenna Lyle (6th). ShoreBank has been a staple on Chicagos South side since 1973. It is the mission and vision of community banks that are too big to fail, according to Pastor Steven Thurston of New Covenant Baptist Church.

Recession losses have left ShoreBank, which has more than $2billion in assets, scramblingto raise new capital or face closure by federal regulators, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports. With significant assistance from major banks, like Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America as well as other investors, the bank reached its goal, according to WSJ.

[ShoreBank] was told it needed to raise $150 million to be eligible for TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program], said State Representative Marlow Colvin (33rd). Thanks in large part to William Brandt of the Illinois Finance Authority, the bank was able to raise the capital, Colvin continued. Despite that, said Colvin, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, said he was still unsure of ShoreBanks solvency.

We saw the big banks get whatever they needed to survive. Here we are on our corner not asking for handouts[but] help to survive, Colvin added. Help to survive the nations toughest economy in decades.

Were not asking for a miracle. Shore- Bank must remain in our community. It must stay open, said Melinda Kelly, Executive Director of the Chatham Business Association.

ShoreBank, positioning itself as the nations leading community development and environmental bank, has garnered local and national support due to its commitment to serving urban communities in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

If the closing continues, the economic bloodline to our community will be severely cut off, said Pastor Corey Brooks of New Beginning Ministries, adding Many of us [achieved] our dreams because of banks like ShoreBank.

More than 100 community banks nationwide have closed since January 2010, 13 of those in Illinois, according to the FDIC website.

Those in attendance werent just expressing their outrage or asking for help, they were also calling for a plan to ensure the survival of community banks and their communities all across the nation.

[W]e want to see a strategic plan developed to reinvest and reinvigorate this vital life force within the community, the clergy wrote in a press release. Absent this initiative, our communities will systematically become investment starved.

The ministers have requested a meeting with Geithner, according to Bishop Simon Gordon of Triedstone Baptist Church. But it is a matter of public leaders from the top down, according to Colvin, who called on President Barack Obama to get involved, to maintain his commitment to the community.

This is a matter of equity, Colvin said later. They [government] did everything to keep people working. What do they think were doing here?

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