Union National Bank in Roseland #tbt #Ward09

This was shared via Pete Kastanes ig @chicagoextinctbus. What you see below is a branch of the former Union National Bank which was bought by Seaway National Bank in the 1980s. I have to do some more research, but I suspect this bank was purchased in a similar fashion to how Seaway got bought in January 2017.

Regardless the branch you see in the photo was demolished in the 2000s and replaced by a new branch you would see near that location today still located near 11108 S. Michigan Avenue. These days, however, this branch is owned by Seaway a branch of Self-Help FCU.

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A sign from The Union National Bank once located at 11108 S Michigan Ave in The Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. Used to live across the street from there.

A post shared by Pete Kastanes (@chicagoextinctbus) on Jan 7, 2019 at 11:01am PST

Crain's: Urban Partnership Bank finds a buyer

Another great article by Crain's Steve Daniels, this time about Urban Partnership Bank:

The ShoreBank saga appears to be nearing a definitive end as south suburban lender Providence Bank & Trust looks to acquire the legendary failed community bank’s successor.

Urban Partnership Bank, the lender established in 2010 to take over the ShoreBank franchise after the high-profile urban community bank’s demise, is throwing in the towel.

The South Side bank has an agreement to sell to Providence Bank & Trust, based in south suburban South Holland, the companies announced today. The deal brings to a close UPB’s effort to continue the “mission” of ShoreBank, for decades a bank renowned for lending actively in low-income urban neighborhoods neglected by other banks until it foundered on hundreds of millions in bad loans following the housing bust and Great Recession.

Still, David Vitale, longtime Chicago banker and chairman of UPB, said in an interview he was pleased to find a buyer interested in furthering ShoreBank’s legacy. Having shrunk dramatically from an asset size that had well exceeded $1 billion, UPB wasn’t able to attain its goals, he said.

“The ability to do what we wanted to do at that scale, with the regulatory costs, put our future into question,” he said. “We’re feeling excited for our customers and our communities that someone was willing to invest in us and our communities.”

Providence Bank & Trust is an interesting story in and of itself. Launched in 2004, just six years before UPB, the bank glided relatively unscathed through the financial crisis when most bank startups from that time frame went belly up. It has 12 branches located mainly in the south suburbs, with a few in northwest Indiana.

The acquisition of UPB will give Providence its first presence in the city.

Describing itself as a “stewardship” bank, Providence donates 10 percent of its profits each year to nonprofits and other causes.

To be honest, I would've liked it if some Black investors who hopefully were unscathed by what happened with Seaway Bank for example could've gotten it. Thus we could have another Black-owned bank in the community. Just shows banking is a very difficult business right now or certainly it always has been.

From ISF to GN Bank - name change

ISF Bank branch 87th & King Drive

Worlee Glover shared this on our FB page on Tuesday and this is just another change coming to our community. The Illinois Service Federal name will be no more thanks to the new Ghanaian family who took ownership of the bank in 2016.

So from Illinois Service Federal (ISF) Bank to Group Nduom (GN) Bank!

The last black-owned bank based in Chicago is changing its name https://t.co/TnKmN7rQGp pic.twitter.com/cN2LP4oVYR

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 25, 2018

Crain's: Urban Partnership Bank for sale

https://www.upbnk.com/

Steve Daniels who wrote a number of reports regarding the woes of the former Seaway National Bank, writes about Urban Partnership Bank now seeking a buyer.

Urban Partnership Bank, formed to carry on the mission of ShoreBank following that high-profile community lender's 2010 collapse, is seeking a buyer.

Chicago-based UPB has hired investment bank Sandler O'Neill & Partners to gauge interest as the bank determines whether it should remain a small, independent bank or join forces with a larger player, Chairman David Vitale said in an interview.

UPB was profitable in 2017 for the first time since its inception. It posted earnings of $7.4 million, but that was only after booking $10.6 million held in loan-loss reserves as the quality of the bank's loan portfolio has improved. UPB has shrunk dramatically as it's finally completed the mammoth task of working through thousands of troubled loans made by the old ShoreBank. At year-end its assets were $472 million, less than half its $982 million at the end of 2013. Its workforce of 113 compares with 260 it employed back then.

But, while the bank is far smaller than the old ShoreBank, which had more than $2 billion in assets at its peak, UPB remains an active business lender in its South and West side neighborhoods and holds symbolic importance. The Great Recession claimed all but one of Chicago's black-owned banks, including Seaway Bank & Trust, for decades the largest and most prominent minority bank in town.

UPB isn't black-owned, but it's officially designated a minority bank by virtue of a board with more than half minority representation.

I see an opportunity to bring a Black-owned lender back to our community who says that Liberty Bank on the west side or Illinois Service Federal in Chatham & Bronzeville have to be the only players in our city. Of course while Chairman Vitale would like to see a Black ownership group purchase UPB according this article, that's not the only path to a sale.

But UPB is conducting a broad search for a buyer and will consider becoming part of a far larger, conventional bank, too.

UPB doesn't need the capital, he said. The bank arguably is too small and might be better off as a unit of a better capitalized institution, he said.

"We're supposed to be a billion dollar bank. Now we're a $500 million bank," he said.

Remaining independent is an option, Vitale said. He believes he will know by the spring what course the bank will take.

Vitale said the decision to seek a buyer wasn't due to pressure from investors, most of which are large financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Northern Trust. UPB was initially capitalized with more than $140 million those companies provided at the behest of Sheila Bair, then the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s chair, who initially was trying to save ShoreBank.

What will the future hold for UPB? Time will tell and looking forward to finding out.

Seaway Bank Farmer's Market

Seaway Bank as a division of Self-Help FCU is hosting a farmer's market every Wednesday from Aug. 2 to Sept. 20, 2017 from 9 AM to 2 PM. at the main branch located at 645 E. 87th Street. Refer to flyer below for more details or click this link for a printable flyer.

Starting Monday, Seaway Bank is now under new ownership again

This new logo for Seaway was found on fb recently, an indication of that brand's new future.

It appears Seaway Bank survives again....

Subject to regulatory approval the remains of Seaway Bank will go from the ownership of State Bank of Texas to Self-Help Federal Credit Union. The North Carolina based financial institution already has a presence in the Chicago market where it took over the assets of Second Federal Savings.

In any case the well known Seaway Bank name survives once again. Steve Daniels who wrote a number of stories on Seaway Bank had this to write today:

The owners of the Texas bank that acquired Seaway from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in late January now are selling Seaway's branches and deposits to a North Carolina-based credit union.

Greensboro, N.C.-based Self-Help Federal Credit Union, which specializes in lending to low-income and minority customers and already owns a Chicago lender focused on Hispanics, will take over Seaway's franchise beginning in May.

Dallas-based State Bank of Texas will continue to hold and manage Seaway's existing loans and will operate the foreign-exchange concessions at O'Hare and Midway airports.

With the deal, Self-Help, a nearly $2 billion-asset credit union with branches in California and Florida in addition to Chicago, could become an important provider of financing in South Side neighborhoods afflicted by joblessness, violence and population decline.

Self-Help also is clearly a better fit with the mission of what had been Chicago's largest black-owned bank for decades—provide credit in communities other banks avoid. State Bank of Texas is expert mainly in lending to hotel operators, often Indian-Americans as also is the family that owns the Texas bank. "It plays to everybody's strengths," said Sushil Patel, president of State Bank of Texas. "The result is a win for the community, Self-Help, the (National Credit Union Association) and State Bank of Texas."

Martin Eakes, who founded Self-Help more than three decades ago and remains its CEO, said he was intent on expanding into Chicago's South Side even before Seaway's failure. Once news of Seaway's demise hit, he reached out immediately to the Patel family, which owns State Bank of Texas.

The deal with State Bank of Texas is strikingly similar to the agreement that brought Self-Help to Chicago in 2013. Then, Rosemont-based Wintrust Financial, which had acquired the deposits of Chicago-based thrift Second Federal Savings after it failed, turned around a month or so later and agreed to sell the deposits to Self-Help.

Something tells me that when Seaway's business finally settles down it'll be back in the hands of Black-ownership. Yes I know wishful thinking, but at least for it's many depositors ownership who didn't seem like a good fit for the many communities Seaway serves has decided to move on from this market. They have the loans that Seaway once had and the airport foreign currency exchanges they'll have as long as the city will allow it.

If you want to read other posts about Seaway click here.

Seaway National Bank closing a conspiracy, not very likely...

[VIDEO] What you see above was the only YouTube posting I have found so far that discusses the failure of Seaway National Bank. Where do I start in talking about what happened here?

This discussion is happening knowing our community - that is perhaps someone wanted to take Seaway Bank out. The host of the video above alleges that once the "Bank Black" movement took hold and those who supported that movement chose to start accounts at Seaway - in some cases closed accounts at larger majority-owned banks (and I won't explain what this means) - this itself started the regulatory scrutiny that shut Seaway down.

What I recognize is that Seaway was dying through the purchase of two failed banks earlier in this decade. Most banks fail due to an inability to recapitalize and it doesn't help that a bank handed out many loans to customers who couldn't afford to repay. Another indication that Seaway was dying is the leadership, there was a shuffle going on that it never recovered from - that is Seaway lost their longtime chairman and there was some shuffling at CEO. It's generally agreed that Seaway was a mess before the FDIC stepped in.

In the above video you will also see a report outside of Seaway the night of the closure. We see a representative of the new owners from State Bank of Texas indicating that they'll keep most jobs for now and they have great respect for what Seaway means to the community. However to be honest when they took command of the bank the next week they immediately started cutting jobs and it'll be a while before they finish.

Hinz: Chicago's leaders are to blame for Seaway Bank's failure

I alluded to this column in an earlier post about why Seaway died. In that post I blame a few factors that included management. Hinz' premise was that Seaway died because Chicago's leaders did little to stave it off. As of late January the Seaway Bank brand remains under the ownership of the Indian-American owned State Bank of Texas.

Some selected excerpts:

As in an Agatha Christie mystery, there are a lot of perpetrators in its demise. But in the end, no one with the wherewithal in Chicago cared enough to intervene, not City Hall or anyone in the city's still substantial black business community. And Chicago is left with a stinking corpse.

My colleague Steve Daniels wrote about Seaway's impending demise long before it occurred. The cost of recapitalizing Seaway was relatively modest, about $25 million according to some who have looked, but it's obvious the place was a mess.
...
Adds another insider, "There were meaningful business issues that made it imprudent to invest" in Seaway. But, in the end, "no one in the African-American community" stepped up.

I won't go over this again, re-read this post. More below:

...the weakening South Side economy took a toll, as middle-income families split for the suburbs. The rise of more competition from non-minority banks cut into Seaway's business, too.

About a year ago, an informal group of heavy hitters assembled and started talking about what could be done. According to people who were involved, the group included black financial execs Jim Reynolds and John Rogers, community leaders James Compton and Eric Whitaker, banker Norm Bobins, and at least three people close to Mayor Rahm Emanuel: City Treasurer Kurt Summers, Deputy Mayor Steve Koch and capital manager Michael Sacks.

They came up with, well, nothing, or at least not enough to get the job done.

One person tells me the bank resisted accepting advice to spin off its still profitable foreign trade operations at O'Hare International Airport. Others say Seaway's financial condition had become so dire that investors would have had little chance of getting their money back.

So any investors looking at Seaway didn't like what they saw, and no sales pitch to bank Black at that bank made little difference. And what about Emanuel and Preckwinkle: "Some blame Emanuel for not squeezing some of his rich pals as only Emanuel can, to contribute to the cause anyhow; others insist he did what he could. Another camp points to metro Chicago's top black elected official, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Her office declines to comment."

 Then I could add this press release by Congressman Bobby Rush after the bank failure:

Click for a larger resolution

Then this tweet by the Rev. Jesse Jackson at least a day before the failure

We weep at the prospect of @SeawayBank closing.We hope the recovery is on the way. pic.twitter.com/VItGbWKtZQ

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) January 28, 2017

Anything they could've done to get this bank back on the right track unless of course they decided they didn't like what they saw either. There was either nothing more they could do or they had nothing to offer. Hinz could likely point his finger at Rush and Jackson.

Just for the sake of it a the start of a twitter conversation between  Kernes Media and Rhymefest. Rhymefest is a rapper in Chicago who dabbled in politics in 2011 running for 20th ward Alderman. Rhymefest had an interesting response

@KerNes_Media I'm not a part of the bank black movement because I haven't seen thier presence inhance the state of the black poor

— Rhymefest (@RHYMEFEST) January 30, 2017

Of all of Kernes Media tweet to other Chicago entertainers Rhymefest was the only one who responded.

All the same the response publicly by some of Chicago's civic leaders haven't been good to the failure of what Hinz refers to as one of Chicago's remaining crown jewels. We need look no further than this first paragraph as to why he's paying attention:

If ever Chicago's African-American community needed a boost, it's now. Poverty and unemployment have risen to distressing levels. Homicides are so frequent they routinely make national news (and prompt a tweet from @realDonaldTrump). The city's black population is dropping year after year, falling further behind that of whites or Latinos. A community in this much pain needs to keep and build upon every asset it has left.

And this is how he ends it:

Thus, a community desperate for investments and loans and the jobs and stability they bring lost an institution that was positioned to provide them, as it had for many years. Anyone could have seen this coming. Remember that the next time someone gives a big speech about fighting crime.

So we see here a number of things wrong with this picture. The politicians didn't really do anything to save at one time the largest Black-owned bank in the USA. The ones who could save it likely didn't like what they saw when they were called upon to save Seaway. And we may see shockwaves from this for years to come.

Why did Seaway Bank die?

Cover Seaway Bancshares Inc. 1996 annual report

We've covered bank closings before especially those that directly affected our community. Shore Bank had been a presence in Chatham for example and in 2010 it failed and purchased by Urban Partnership Bank. The loss of Seaway is painful surely for the many longtime supporters and even the shareholders who held stock through Seaway Bancshares from the beginning.

My often stated hope since the failure last month has been that Seaway will be back in the hands of a Black ownership group. It's gone, that bank that was is history. If you want to come up a possible holding company that could own whatever was left of Seaway you need cash for that.

Greg Hinz wrote a piece about why Seaway was allowed to wither. From some of our political leaders the response to this big event was tepid. While it's something I would like to explore in a future post, Hinz pointed to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and county board president Toni Preckwinkle for allowing this bank to fail.

The point of this post is to share my ideas as to what happened as I see it. Perhaps even as it has been reported. So four visible indications that Seaway Bank was in trouble long before January.

1. Purchase of two failed banks - As an observer I was glad to see Seaway expand into the market served by the Maywood, Illinois based First Suburban Bank and into Milwaukee served by the Black-owned Legacy Bank. Both banks were purchased the same way Seaway Bank had been purchased itself, both banks were shut down by the FDIC and their state regulators. Both banks failed near the tail end of the sub-prime loan crisis where a number of banks failed around the country. The purchase of those two banks caused Seaway to suffer losses after a long period of profitability.
2. Jacoby Dickens dies - Until 2013 the majority owner and chairman of the board of directors was Mr. Jacoby Dickens. It doesn't take long to do a Google search and find out the impact he's had on the community and the influence he's had in Chicago's business community or even in Chicago Politics. His untimely demise unfortunately moved forward the next series of changes which are the next bullet points. If he was still living it's possible that the executive management team would've remained the same and perhaps the bank would survive.
3. Veranda Dickens takes the reins - Greg Hinz refers to the now former Chairwoman of Seaway's board of directors as "well-intended but inexperienced widow." I will take great pains to not point at her as the reason for the banks untimely demise. Bottom line was that she was at the top when the FDIC shut down the bank. Many of the issues Seaway had predated her succession to Mr. Dickens role in 2014. Regardless, although she wasn't wrong to overhaul the bank and bring in consultants that remained until the very end one can only wonder if this was a disastrous decision at the worst possible time. We see the results of this now!
4. Departure of President/CEO Darrell Jackson - One could say that if former CEO Walter Grady or any of his management team remained at the helm Seaway would likely be OK. Unfortunately Grady retired or who knows perhaps it wasn't his decision. The savior could've been Darrell Jackson except that he departed after only 14 months, with Mrs. Dickens assuming his role on an interim basis afterwards. I did a blog post about this development which asked "What is going on at that bank?" We may never know but one can only wonder did he like what he saw? Either way from roughly October 2015 to January 2017 Seaway Bank had no permanent President/CEO, the consultants remained until the very end, and issues with recaptization. The regulators took note surely of all those factors and pulled the plug.

If you look at quite a few reports by Crain's reporter Steve Daniels you see an anatomy of Seaway's problems within the last three years. I've shared many of his reports especially the issues with gaining more capital for the bank - refer to Daniels' final report before the January failure - or the "c-suite" shuffle .i.e. Darrell Jackson or even attempts in 2016 to get more capitol. Daniels' work was noted by Hinz as they're colleagues at Crain's Chicago Business.

Now the assets that were the former Seaway Bank - also known as Seaway National Bank or Seaway Bank & Trust Company - are in the hands of the Indian-American owned State Bank of Texas. In recognition of Seaway's history and stature in our community they've opted to keep the name. However, I recognize that they have a business to run and they're going to do things their way to insure the success of their business. In spite of what happened we're still talking about business and the main language of business is money. That's the main reason Seaway is gone...

Are Seaway Bank account holders withdrawing their accounts?

@th3melan8dgawd

I wonder if this is going to be an ongoing trend with Seaway Bank under non-Black ownership:

Seaway customer Gwen Hicks said she planned to withdraw all her money and close her account. She said she would start banking at Illinois Service Federal.

“I definitely want to keep our money in our community and not in Texas,” she said. “Texas isn’t going to do anything for our South Side streets, our neighborhood.”

Sushil Patel, president of State Bank of Texas told Crain’s Chicago Business that he understands some depositors want to bank with an institution that’s putting money back into the community. State Bank of Texas declined to be interviewed by WBEZ.

Despite State Bank of Texas being a minority-owned operation, Viveca Ware of Independent Community Bankers of America said there will be cultural differences.

Ware said minority-owned banks don’t necessarily translate from one to the next.

“It’s really amazing to sit there and listen to the cultural difference and how they need to modify their operations to address to provide meaningful services to those communities,” Ware said.

Worlee said on Nextdoor that "If the new owners think just keeping the name is enough they are in for a rude awakening."

I'm learning more and more how passionate our community was about Seaway. It was an important financial institution in our community and it slipped out of local hands. Now that there are some moves to cut down on the workforce for Seaway it won't be something of an economic engine it once was.

Crain's: Seaway Bank buyer rolls dice on African-American acceptance

www.seawaybank.us

It's almost been two weeks since the formerly Black-owned Seaway Bank was purchased by the Dallas, TX based State Bank of Texas which is owned by an Indian-American family. We already know that the Seaway name will be retained primarily in an effort to maintain some of the predominantly Black customers.

What does the "bank black" movement stand for? The Indian-American family that just took ownership of Chicago's largest African-American-owned bank is about to find out.

Dallas-based State Bank of Texas, a lender mainly known for making loans to Indian-American operators of hotels around the U.S., was tapped Jan. 27 by federal bank regulators to assume the deposits and most of the assets of Seaway Bank & Trust, based on Chicago's South Side.

A large percentage of Seaway's depositors are drawn at least in part by its status as African-American-owned. Seaway's "bank black" campaign last year brought in at least $8 million, with new customers depositing their money at the bank on the basis of its ownership even though its financial condition was rapidly deteriorating.

How many of those depositors will want to stay with a Seaway Bank under Indian-American ownership?

Sushil Patel, president of State Bank of Texas, acknowledges the potential issue.

"I'm not a black bank," he says in an interview. "I'm not a white bank, but I'm definitely not a black bank."

The most important consideration for depositors, he says, is whether their money is safe.

"Banking is still banking," Patel says. "I respect the idea of depositors wanting to put money into a bank that will put money back into that community."

We learn for the first time one of the other bidders of Seaway:

There was competition in the bidding the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. held for Seaway's assets and deposits. The three other bidders included another black-owned bank, Liberty Bank & Trust of New Orleans, according to an FDIC disclosure.

The agency didn't say how much Liberty bid or even whether its bid met the FDIC's specifications. Other bidders were Republic Bank of Chicago, owned by Greek Americans, and Raleigh, N.C.-based First-Citizens Bank & Trust, a publicly traded, $31 billion-asset lender.

Usually, regulators take pains to try to find a buyer for a failed minority-owned bank with the same ethnicity. That was the case in 2014 when State Bank of Texas took over failed National Republic Bank of Chicago, also an Indian-American-owned lender. Likewise, Seaway was the chosen buyer for Milwaukee's black-owned Legacy Bank in 2011.

In its deal with State Bank of Texas, the FDIC effectively paid the bank more than $40 million to take ownership of most of Seaway, according to the purchase agreement (see the PDF).

That will incentivize State Bank of Texas to work out Seaway's bad loans as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

The FDIC contacted 350 banks, including 102 owned by minorities, to bid on Seaway, a spokesman says. The Texas bank's was the lowest cost for the agency, which by law had to accept it, he says.

As with many Indian-American-owned banks, State Bank of Texas' lending expertise is chiefly in the hotel industry, accounting for about 60 percent of its loan portfolio.

Otherwise, it mainly makes commercial real estate loans, so it has little experience in Seaway's bread-and-butter business loans and mortgages.

"At the end of the day, it's still lending," Patel says.

Once Seaway's bad loans are charged off, sold or worked out, the bank will continue making the same kinds of loans it used to, he says. The Patels won't install a new bank president for Seaway. Instead, the three family members—Sushil, his father, Chan Patel, who is chairman and CEO, and his brother Rajan Patel, chief lending officer—will take turns being in Chicago and running the operations, he says.

Liberty Bank has a branch on the west side where the former Community Bank of Lawndale/Covenant Bank was headquartered. Seaway won't have their own management team for the time being as you saw in the excerpt.

In recognition that this is a business we're talking about my hope is that in the next few years State Bank could possibly set up Seaway for a sale to a Black-ownership group. This is their business for now as you see in the screencap above so it's ultimately up to them whether or not they want to eventually sell.

In the meanwhile, we see that in this article Illinois Service Federal is setting themselves up as the only locally Black-owned bank here in Chicago. Also we see in this article actions taken by the community whenever a Black-owned financial institution is taken over by someone outside of the community - for example the former Community Bank of Lawndale.

What many of us should be concerned about particularly customers are the status of the many jobs that could be at stake during the course of this transition. State Bank doesn't have as many branches as Seaway so it's possible there will be some layoffs.

I suggest you read the whole thing.

The future of the Seaway Bank

Does the bank & name survive?

The closure of Seaway Bank and FDIC orchestrated purchase by the State Bank of Texas has certainly come as a huge shock. There have been rumblings that there had been trouble at the bank for the past two years. This even though it was in the news that Seaway Bank within the last three years was actually making a profit.

What this means is that Veranda Dickens is no longer majority owner and Seaway Bancshares holding company no longer own the 52 year old bank. Essentially and perhaps many of you already figured this out, the bank is no longer Black-owned. Regardless as happens in situations like that such as this operations are basically status quo for a while at which point the new ownership starts making decisions that makes sense for them.


Saturday night I saw that Seaway's ig account had been reactivated with the last post was to let the world know that the bank is hiring. Problem is the website is still down unless job seeking individuals should for the moment visit the career page of the State Bank of Texas - which has no job postings at all. BTW, State Bank already has a presence on Devon Avenue so they're not that unfamiliar with the Chicago market.

The reactivation of the bank's ig account could be one indication that the Seaway name will survive. That may mean the brand is still significant and they recognize as an Indian-American owned bank that they will be serving a different market now. I could see them keeping Seaway as a subsidiary until whatever time they may decide to sell the bank. Perhaps depending on whether or not regulators may approve any potential sale. Or whether or not this is a successful enough operation where they will choose to keep the bank.

BTW, we've covered bank closings before especially the ShoreBank closing. We covered that somewhat with all the media attention because of any perceived political favoritism towards them. Seaway had been one of the largest Black-owned banks in the nation until the FDIC and State Bank took over. This is a very significant story and like the closure of ShoreBank takes place directly in our community.

For this new re-iteration of Seaway Bank under non-Black ownership what does the future hold?

Seaway Bank is closed down by FDIC

This is the page you will see when you visit Seaway Bank's online home as of Friday night. For the many supporters of Seaway Bank this is truly a sad day. Unfortunately what did them was the purchase of assets from two other failed banks and essentially loan losses.

Read more about it at Crain's. Which now says Chicago now has only one Black-owned bank in Illinois Service Federal. Then of course Liberty Bank on the city's west side (formerly Community Bank of Lawndale and Covenant Bank) which is actually based on New Orleans.

BTW, Seaway Bank recently started a ig account unfortunately it has been deleted. I took a screencap of that also. And even worse the immediate last post after the screen cap posted to ig was of a group of young men who were at the bank being mentored on working in the banking industry.

Crain's: Is Chicago about to lose another black-owned bank?

Via Crain's

More bad news from local lender Seaway Bank & Trust Company:

Seaway Bank & Trust is in the early stages of a capital-raising campaign that, if successful, could well threaten its status as the largest black-owned bank in the Midwest.

The South Side lender has suffered $16 million in total losses over the past five quarters ended March 31. Its capital is below the minimum needed for the bank to be deemed “adequately capitalized” by regulators. To prop it up and enable it to lend actively, Seaway is preparing to select an investment banker to raise what one source says would be more than $15 million in fresh capital.

In an email, a spokeswoman acknowledges the need for cash but won't comment on the amount sought. “Seaway is currently engaging investment bankers for a capital raise,” she says. “We remain committed to our mission and our markets.”

The bank also remains without a CEO since the departure in September of Darrell Jackson, who led Seaway for only a year before his exit. Executive Chairman Veranda Dickens, who has been in charge since the 2013 death of her husband, longtime Seaway owner and Chairman Jacoby Dickens, “is managing day-to-day operations of the bank,” the spokeswoman says. The CEO search “is ongoing and progressing well,” she adds.

Those optimistic words notwithstanding, Seaway has suffered quite a reversal of fortune in the 18 months since Dickens declared that the bank wouldn't need financial help. That came after high-priced consultants determined that the previous management team had made material accounting errors not in the bank's favor. After financials were restated for all of 2013 and half of 2014, a substantial loss was changed to a profit for 2014. Since then, however, losses have piled up, leaving Seaway with just $25 million in equity. At the end of 2014, when Dickens made her declaration, the bank's equity stood at $43 million

Seaway's closest competitor apparently is Urban Partnership Bank:

It's not assured that Seaway will be able to raise the money, especially when another South Side bank catering to African-Americans, Urban Partnership Bank, also is seeking more than $20 million in new equity.

UPB—already backed by banking giants JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs—is expected to seek the funds from a group of local and national banks. It's ahead of Seaway in terms of holding meetings with prospective investors and other preparations.

If other banks end up bailing out UPB, that could eliminate an important potential source of capital for Seaway.

And if Dickens does find help, the likelihood of keeping the bank in African-American hands may be remote. The amount of money Seaway needs likely will compel her to seek investors interested in preserving an important city lender regardless of their race.

Chicago has been losing black-owned banks, with two failing in recent years. Another on the verge of failure—South Side thrift Illinois Service Federal, formed during the Great Migration of blacks to Chicago from the South—recently was rescued with $9 million from a Ghanaian-American family.

I've attached a graphic regarding Seaway courtesy of Crain's.

2015 the year that was

 Earlier this year Chicagoans went to the polls to either vote out their incumbent Alderman or to vote in new ones. In addition, the city threw the mayoral contest to a run off for the first time and resulted in a victory for Rahm Emanuel and a second term for mayor.

As a result of the recent municipal elections Ald. Roderick Sawyer replaced Ald. Howard Brookins as chairman of the city council Black Caucus. Ald. Sawyer has been all over the McDonald shooting and the release of the police footage of that incident.

In addition, Ald. Brookins is running for the 1st Congressional District seat held by Bobby Rush. Congressman Rush had reportedly been looking at retirement until he revealed later that he plans to run for re-election in 2016.

Though he's been re-elected a recent reversal of events during the last two months of 2015 has activists calling for his resignation. The reversal involves a police shooting last year of Laquan McDonald shot by a police officer 16 times and any footage of this incident suppress by Mayor Emanuel & state's attorney Anita Alvarez.

Speaking of the state's attorney as a result of her alleged role in the suppression of police footage of the McDonald incident activists are calling for her to resign as well. For the moment while the next mayoral election is 2019, Alvarez has a primary coming up next year. She already has some seemingly strong opponents going up against her so we shall see if she can eke out the Democratic nomination - which is certainly a shoo-in for being elected in November.

Another Chicago politico in Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown as a result of federal investigations into her campaign has lost the support of the Cook County Democratic Party. She had originally been slated but federal warrants caused Democratic "bosses" in Chicago to remove their original slating.

We're still following the Whole Foods Market coming to 63rd & Halsted. Thanks to Bruce Montgomery on instagram we've been seeing some progress as far as construction of the future site of Whole Foods Market Englewood.

Disclosure: One of the bloggers here at The Sixth Ward is a team member at Whole Foods Market.

In addition local lender Seaway Bank celebrated 50 years in business. While loyal customers and the bank's employees are celebrating there are some hiccups and that includes the sudden resignation of their new President & CEO who had been installed in 2014.

Also another local lender Highland Community Bank failed and taken over by a Indiana-based bank. As a matter of fact in different times Seaway had been in talks to buy the bank located on 87th Street near Ashland Avenue.

BTW, on the south side Pullman after a new factory opened up and a national monument designation is in the running as of this posting for 2015 Curbed Cup neighborhood of the year. In the meanwhile near the end of the year Chatham was the recipient of further attention thanks to the many modernist homes built in the area over the years.

What is a story you followed during the past year? What are you predictions and expectations in 2016?

Going back into the vault for a moment...

[VIDEO] During the early days of this blog, we shared a video from a blogger based in Atlanta. The gist was basically was save money and do business with a Black-owned financial institution. He even showed us that he was putting his money where his mouth is and made a deposit at this bank.

Capitol City Bank & Trust had a branch not too far away from the campus of the Atlanta University Center home of Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark-Atlanta University. How many students pass this branch and never think to open an account there.

Anyway I found our recently that Capitol City failed earlier this year. This only brings to mind the dwindling number of Black-owned financial institutions in the nation. It's probably not much different that how many other banks in the country failed in the midst of the financial crisis.

Unfortunately just like the fate of a Chicago based Black-owned bank Highland Community Bank, the assets of the Highland and Capitol City are now owned by majority-owned institutions. Highland is now owned by a bank based in Indiana and Capitol City is now owned by a North Carolina based bank.

Also consider in recent months that another locally owned Black-owned bank - Illinois Service Federal - is looking to go from a depositor owned spendthrift to a shareholder owned institution. They are seeking an infusion of capital for its survival.

Highland Community Bank closed and Seaway Bank 2.0 suffers a "glitch"

Highland Community Bank

Today in the news I saw that Highland Community Bank HQ @ 1701 W. 87th St. had been taken over by the FDIC. Over the years Seaway Bank had attempted to buy Highland but to no avail and somehow Highland was able to survive. There are those who follow community lenders who wondered WHEN that small lender would finally fail. 

Today we have our answer.

Regulators have closed a small lender in Chicago, making it the second U.S. bank failure of 2015 following 18 closures last year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken over Highland Community Bank, which operated two branches.

The bank had $54.7 million in assets and $53.5 million in deposits as of Dec. 31.

United Fidelity Bank, based in Evansville, Indiana, agreed to assume all of Highland Community Bank's deposits and to buy the failed bank's assets.

So that makes it only three Black-owned banks in Chicago, which includes Seaway Bank, Illinois Service Federal, and New Orleans, Louisiana based Liberty Bank (which operates a branch on Chicago's west side formerly owned by Covenant Bank and Community Bank of Lawndale).

Speaking of Seaway it was recently in the news that they have been hit with a consent order by the FDIC:

Seaway 2.0 has stumbled on a glitch.

Seaway Bank & Trust, Chicago's largest African-American-owned bank, based on the South Side, has been slapped with a consent order by its regulators. The order requires it to hold elevated capital levels, strengthen management, halt dividend payments to investors and beef up controls to detect money-laundering and other criminal activity by customers.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. along with the Illinois Division of Banking issued the order Dec. 16, little more than a month after Seaway had declared itself a successful turnaround following restatement of six quarters worth of earnings that substantially improved the bank's financial condition.

The order, which the bank consented to without admitting or denying charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices, requires Seaway to boost its “Tier 1” capital to 8 percent of its assets within 60 days. Based on Sept. 30 figures, the bank would need to raise nearly $8 million to hit that benchmark.

Seaway is celebrating 50 years in business this year. Hopefully they won't go the way of Highland Bank in the near future.

In the meanwhile as you read in the article for Highland, they will be taken over by Indiana-based United Fidelity Bank. In fact if you clicked on Highland official website it's noted on that with a link to that bank.

Are the loss of Black-owned neighborhood banks a loss for our neighborhoods?

Seaway Bank celebrates their 50th year anniversary

Seaway Bank & Trust Company main branch located @ 645 E. 87th Street will be host to a 50th year celebration on Friday, January 2, 2015. It will be one in a series of events as next year Seaway Bank celebrates being in business 50 years. It will definitely be noted in our New Year's Eve year in review to be published on New Year's Eve!

Crain's: Seaway Bank swings to a profit. Here's how.

Photo via Chicago Sun-Times

Check out this rather incredulous quote from a recent Crain's article about the longtime community bank located in Chatham:

The dramatic turnabout for Seaway is highly unusual. “I've never seen a material error that goes in the bank's favor after a turnaround team comes in,” says Paul O'Connor, a locally based 30-plus-year veteran of the banking industry and currently an investment banker for community banks. “I've seen many that go in the opposite direction.”

So after having changed the executive team at the bank this past summer and talks of finding new investors or the bank having a loss it turns out Seaway actually made money this year.

Read the article to see how they did it. And check out this graphic lifted directly from Crain's.