CEOs of banks serving Black clients weigh progress after Floyd murder

JPMorgan, a global finance giant, is about 1,000 times as big as Optus Bank in terms of the assets it manages.Mjartan, a white bank executive with over a decade and a half of experience serving Black communities and other underserved groups, was there to discuss the $30 billion commitment Dimon made after George Floyd's murder. They described the investments as game-changing.CEOs of five banks primarily serving Black communities said they were able to acquire customers at faster rates, lend to more Black-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs, service more mortgages for Black families, and improve their technology in ways that were previously out of the question. But to chip away at the racial wealth gap ⁠— the massive wealth discrepancy between Black and white Americans ⁠— Dimon, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, and their Wall Street peers need to sustain their investments of capital and time at the current pace, according to CEOs of Black-serving banks.For Mjartan, the future is hopeful. After Floyd's killing, JPMorgan made a $30 billion commitment to racial equity, Citi's was $1.1 billion, and Bank of America's was $1.25 billion; part of all the commitments was tens of millions of dollars directed to Black-owned and Black-serving banks, known as minority-owned depository institutions, or community-development financial institutions. But the terms of the investments are clear and fair, multiple CEOs of Black-led or Black-serving banks said.Jeannine Jacokes, the CEO of the Community Development Bankers Association, said the members of the industry group, which include Black-owned and Black-serving banks and But the investments of 2020 could significantly increase the number of Black Americans in the banking system, multiple bank CEOs said.Teri Williams, the chief operating officer and president of OneUnited Bank, a Black-led, Black-serving bank, received an investment from Citi. "These investments are certainly off to a very good start that will allow our banks to really begin to grow in a way that they can materially have an impact in all of the communities that we're serving." Kelly said there'd been a "significant" increase in terms of the mortgages and loans they'd been able to give to customers. "We're focused on answering the question: How can we create enduring relationships here?" Santos said.Here's the breakdown so far: The $32 billion that America's largest banks committed after Floyd's murder has the potential to reshape the country, as long as it's a starting point, multiple CEOs of Black-owned and Black-serving banks said."We didn't get here overnight," Darrin Williams, Southern Bancorp's CEO, said. It can't just be short term," OneUnited Bank's Teri Williams said.Strengthening banks that serve Black Americans is just one part of the equation to solving the racial wealth gap, Valerie Wilson of Economic Policy Institute, an independent think tank, said.