Two black banks merge together this week to become the first black-led bank that has over $1 billion in assets. This allows them to finance housing and entrepreneurship in different areas at a great scale.
Los Angeles-based bank, Broadway Federal, has combined with Washington, D.C.-based bank, City First, to create the largest black-controlled bank in the United States. To add to the amount they have in assets, together, they have over $850 million in deposits.
Chief executive of City First, Brian E. Argett, will be the CEO of the two merging banks with Wayne-Kent A. Bradshaw, Broadway’s CEO, will be chairman of the company’s nine-member board. To up their power even more, former deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration under former President Barack Obama, Marie C. Johns, has been appointed to lead independent director.
“The combination will allow our collective institution to focus its lending capacity in three key areas: multifamily housing, small-business finance, and nonprofit finance,” Argett states to Bloomberg. “If you are providing financing for a small business, you are enabling wealth creation, job creation, and economic empowerment through that financing. There’s a multiplier.”