https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/10/business/killer-mike-greenwood-bank/index.html

New York (CNN)A new majority Black and Latinx-owned and operated digital bank hopes to make supporting Black-owned banks and businesses a little easier for consumers.

Greenwood was created by Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover and his close friend, rapper-activist Michael "Killer Mike" Render. The leadership team at Greenwood, which includes former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, unveiled their new platform on Thursday after raising more than $3 million in seed funding in June.

Glover has been working on Greenwood since early 2019, but he said interest in the venture spiked after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a nationwide reckoning with racism that has inspired many Americans -- including many in the corporate world -- to support Black-owned businesses and financial institutions.
While the bank doesn't open until January, the company launched its website on Thursday and there is already a waiting list for those who want to open a Greenwood account.

"I will say we're in the tens of thousands," Glover told CNN Business on Friday. "That number is increasing by the day."

From left, Greenwood bank founders Michael "Killer Mike" Render, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover
From left, Greenwood bank founders Michael "Killer Mike" Render, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover
What is Greenwood?

Like its competitors Chime, Aspiration, Money Lion and Vero, Greenwood is a digital bank whose financial services -- including checking and savings accounts, mobile deposits and peer-to-peer transfers -- are fulfilled almost entirely online. The bank offers a global ATM network, Apple and Android Pay services, and two-day advances on paychecks for customers who sign up for direct deposit.
close dialog

Unlike its peers, however, Greenwood's target audiences are Black and Latinx communities and anyone else who wants to support Black-owned businesses. Glover says the bank will specialize in financing Black and Latinx entrepreneurs who typically have a harder time securing loans from mainstream commercial banks.

"In order to build wealth, you need bank capital," Glover said. "We will identify qualified entrepreneurs, business owners and creatives to equip them with the capital needed to make their dreams a reality."

Greenwood is named after the former Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, an early 20th century African-American business community that was so prosperous it was nicknamed Black Wall Street. A mob of White Americans destroyed the Greenwood district during the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
Why bank Black?

Before it was destroyed nearly a century ago, Glover said, a dollar spent in Tulsa's Greenwood district would circulate 36 times before leaving the community.
"Today, a dollar circulates for 20 days in the White community, but only six hours in the Black community," Render said in a written statement. Black Americans are twice as likely to be denied mortgage loans by traditional banks, but minority depository institutions have a better track record of lending to non-White individuals.

"This lack of fairness in the financial system is why we created Greenwood," Render added.

Why create a digital bank?


Glover points out that Americans have been banking online almost exclusively at higher rates in recent years. It's a trend major commercial banks have been slow to embrace and a sector Glover says hasn't done much to reach out to minorities.

"There were no digital banking solutions that cater to the African-American or Latinx communities until Greenwood," Glover said.

In 2017, about 17% of Black Americans didn't have a bank account, compared to just 3% of White Americans, according to an FDIC study.

There are only 23 minority-owned banks in the US today. Glover says those brick-and-mortar institutions have done a "fairly good job" supporting minority communities over the years, but "today is a new day."

"We believe there is an opportunity to continue to super serve our community by creating a digital bank that maybe the traditional African-American, Latinx banks just don't understand," he said. "We certainly know the traditional larger banks don't understand our community."

Glover founded Bounce TV in 2010 before it was sold to TV station owner E.W. Scripps in 2017 -- an acquisition deal that included two other networks -- for $292 million, according to Deadline. The self-described serial entrepreneur was inspired to create Greenwood in 2018 after noticing his son and daughter did all their banking online.
"I believe digital banking is the wave of the future, not just something that's popular now," he said.

whitewashing kemps voter suppression and touting trumps fake platinum plan for black people (including the scam 'opportunity zones' that are just tax breaks for white billionaires like dan gilbert).

i remember when he went on nra tv and became a mascot for their assault on the stoneman douglas survivors.

for someone so intelligent...he somehow keeps ending up on the side of right wing bad faith actors.

He falling for the okie doke


Interview With KM

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-killer-mike.html?showTranscript=1

>whitewashing kemps voter suppression and touting trumps fake
>platinum plan for black people (including the scam
>'opportunity zones' that are just tax breaks for white
>billionaires like dan gilbert).
>
>i remember when he went on nra tv and became a mascot for
>their assault on the stoneman douglas survivors.
>
>for someone so intelligent...he somehow keeps ending up on the
>side of right wing bad faith actors.

Not sure if he was touting the “platinum plan” but it could have been a play to at least try and keep Democrats honest. Perhaps someone could give him some credit, no pun intended (or not).

at least know WHY he did it.

.

i see why grifters are so successful.

you can tell people your photo op with the government created a 'trade school opportunities' that were already there. no actual executive order. no legislative session to address the new education budget. in the middle of a state finance crisis from the pandemic. no campaign contributions. no lobbying. just wallah. 1 meeting with a rapper is all it took.

Like even if you think there’s co-opt currency ... it can’t be worth that much with huge negative returns.

Or is that an Arabic word I don’t know about?

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

like just swear/promise to God/Allah.

“ just I swear 1 meeting with a rapper is all it took.” doesn’t quite make as much sense in context as “just voila. 1 meeting with a rapper is all it took.” But um, okay, if you say so?



Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

no campaign contributions. no lobbying. (things normally needed to get real substantive action from a governor)

just wallah. (a promise, pinky swear, cross my heart, etc)

its really not that hard to comprehend the context.

you asked if it was an arabic word that you dont know about. and thats exactly what it is lol. i dont understand the issue.

>no campaign contributions. no lobbying. (things normally
>needed to get real substantive action from a governor)
>
>just wallah. (a promise, pinky swear, cross my heart, etc)
>
>its really not that hard to comprehend the context.
>
>you asked if it was an arabic word that you dont know about.
>and thats exactly what it is lol. i dont understand the
>issue.

Whoa, a triple-down!

You said it meant “ swear to God” now you say it means “pinky swear” which are not exactly the same. I mean politicians “pinky swear” (fake promises) but saying “swear to God” obviously isn’t what Kemp did with Mike here. I’m not even sure what pinky swear you’re saying is being made here (you implied that the trade school opportunities were already there before Mike met with Kemp, so who is swearing what to who again?).

Really the more you explain, the less it makes sense. At this point, I’m just keeping it going for the lulz

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

"I pay taxes in Georgia and own business there. I’m checking up on my dollars At work. I also meet with my city council member, state rep and mayor.! I suggest all Georgians do the same."

Folks wanna call him a "seat at the table type" for being an involved citizen. Mofos just wanna sit back and criticize everything and everybody who isn't doing things their way.

now, I disagreed with the NRA video he did, because nothing good for anyone really came from that, but meeting with Kemp had a real affect. sometimes people just want to criticize for no reason.

Coins
Cash
Checks
Cashing checks

Also when you reference the speed of money circulating in a community relative to 100 years ago, you’re doing a gross misdirection if you
1. Don’t mention the speed of technology
2. Acknowledge that switching to digital would decrease that *six hour circulation time (Sources needed) rather than increase it.

as aggressively as they can to digital anyway tho. (eg. A friend of a friend in retail banking for one of the majors broke down to me how far gone things already are (at least with that company) and how the general vibe felt like a protracted layoff). It might be wishful thinking to expect these companies will prioritize the needs/habits of their most vulnerable customers (Black, Latin American, Indigenous, rural, etc) over their bottom lines unfortunately.

I personally think postal banking (https://www.fastcompany.com/90416889/the-answer-to-helping-the-unbanked-exists-on-every-main-street-the-post-office) is a better alternative to both traditional and neo models if we're talking accessible and humane physical banking for disadvantaged communities, especially being non-profit. But there's some benefits to the digital/neo-bank model too I guess. I mean, it does cut overhead since less human resources and real/land assets are required for customer service functions... which could translate to lower/zero fees, better savings interest, cheaper lending, and other boosts to customers' wallets. I also get the desire to establish some degree of black ownership early too, if neo-banks are truly to become a mainstay in the near future... rather than risk being mostly locked out of the sector again.

I still want to be mindful of *any* neo-bank's fine print before fully supporting tho, no matter the ownership. Yes they're digital/convenient but they're still banks. Lol. I guess we'll see tho.



>Coins
>Cash
>Checks
>Cashing checks
>

an all-digital bank that has pretty much no relation to that.



www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I don't dislike him or anything. But there's been more than a few SMH moments

I bank with WF and they can't even find black people.

irrelevant.

but since you're assuming, I have accounts at 2 majors banks AND credit unions. my kids and wife also have accounts at CUs.

But folks can bank at credit unions.
If someone says they don't go to Walmart and another person says Target is trash too ... that doesn't mean their aren't other stores.

those other options can also be trash.

and we are slowly putting more into the CU

Honestly tho.. I think most of my bitterness comes from overdraft fees when we were broke af.

Once you start stacking banking doesn’t seem as bad.

my last 2-3 car loans got the hook up from credit unions. my current rate is 2.69. nobody could get close to that.

I use the big banks for my daily stuff. their sites tend to better and getting to someone on the phone after hours is good too. however, I've been thinking of getting rid of WF and putting that cash into a CU or black bank.

yeah, those feels can be draining af.

so we could take advantage of the rates.

We ended up going with our regular bank for our refi tho. Tried to walk into the CU to see about a refi and they told me it’s all done online.

For some reason that irked me. I want to talk to a person when it comes to a refi. Even if it’s on the phone.

Part of its laziness on my part. We feel good about the rate we have tho. 2.75% for a 10 year.

I'm in the middle of a refi right now. I'm in a 15 that's at 3.75. the new 15 will be at 2.75 and I'm getting some cash out to pay off the car.

once its all done, I can tackle this zombie ass student loan. so sick of that.

I use quicken for all things mortgage. they make everything so easy on their site and are in constant contact. I never feel like I'm out of the loop.

edit:
I also refied the student loan, which will now also be through a CU.

And I didn't notice it at first, but he definitely has a radical-as-long-as-it-doesn't-hurt-his-interests approach.

Honestly, he's a bigger hypocrite than Jay based on the content of his music.

It would be like peak Ice Cube spending his interviews lecturing protesters and tap dancing for the NRA.

Not sure how anyone takes his lyrics seriously at this point. Pretty much ruined RTJ for me.

so I think that could be one of the reasons he gives off funny vibes or had the NRA slip up.

He’s a southerner and they love their guns.

Could also be that he just doesn’t agree with everything you agree with and yes, has self interest. Wouldn’t be the first or last person to do this.

No one makes all the right moves either.

Killer Mike ... 2019

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwin3YjJ7a_sAhUCbawKHcLVDbEQFjAAegQICRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fepisode%2F3khFc57fzFzVWduyi5n3Cs&usg=AOvVaw2G90C9pLjSs6nSVcsCTz1K

I'm tired of black celebrities always giving little donations to this fund, this non-profit organization, and etc., those shits is just for tax write off's not for anybody's benefit but theirs.

When a black person owns a bank, you can decide who gets loans, and who doesn't, give others an employment opportunity who wouldn't at other banks cause of their race, etc.

I'm tired of hearing about so-called black banks that really aren't, they're just hire a lot of black people for visuals but internally it's all white, or the majority of the owners being non-black but keep 1 or 2 blacks around on the board to get that equal opportunity/minority-owned tax benefits.

vibes.

if it's real? more power.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I hope it isn’t another RushCare with high fees

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/difference-between-bank-and-credit-union/

For-Profit vs. Nonprofit

What makes banks and credit unions different from each other is their profit status. Banks are for-profit, meaning they are either privately owned or publicly traded, while credit unions are nonprofit institutions. This for-profit vs. not-for-profit divide is the reason for the difference between the products and services each type of institution offers.

A credit union is owned by its members, since the institution is actually set up as a cooperative. Credit unions typically open membership to individuals who share a common bond, such as the industry they are employed in, the community they live in, their faith or their membership in another organization. In addition, as a nonprofit, credit unions are also generally exempt from federal taxes, and some credit unions even receive subsidies from the organizations that they are affiliated with. This means credit unions do not have to worry about making profits for shareholders.

It is the credit union’s mission to provide its members with the best terms it can afford for their financial products. This means members generally get lower rates on loans, pay fewer (and lower) fees and earn higher APYs on savings products than bank customers do.

Banks, on the other hand, are in business to make a profit. This means banks are focused on making that profit, rather than specifically centering on the needs of the account holders. This is one of the reasons why you will often find that banks charge more fees, and at a higher rate, than credit unions do. Interest rates on lending also tend to be higher at banks, while their APYs on savings products tend to be lower.

https://money.howstuffworks.com/start-bank.htm

So Where Do You Start?

Starting a bank might sound like easy money, and you'd expect that a lot of people would give it a try. Instead, there only are about 20 applications to start banks in the U.S. each year, according to Carpenter. And just 10 new federally chartered banks opened in the first three quarters of 2019. That's because starting a bank requires a lot of work and money. Typically, the process takes about a year and a half.

At the start, when potential bank founders come in to seek help from Carpenter, he first wants to look at their business plans. "The bottom line when people come in is, does it make sense or not make sense, based on competition and the business plan?" he explains. (From the Banking Law Journal, here's a list of questions that prospective bank owners should be able to answer.)

If it looks as if a new bank has a good chance of success, that's when the complicated part begins. Bank founders need to put together a board of directors to oversee management, and then they have to go out and raise enough capital to fund the bank's operations. We're not talking just taking a loan out of your 401(k), either — this requires serious money. "Most likely at the low end, we're talking about $10 million," Carpenter says. "We just opened a bank in New York for which they raised $130 million."

And big banks have been lobbying for a while to try to take away the tax-exempt status of credit unions. They don't like the competition.

https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2017/2017execsumm.pdf


Reasons Households Were Unbanked As in previous years, the 2017 survey asked unbanked households about the reasons why they did not have a bank account. Findings are similar to those reported in previous years.

• More than half (52.7 percent) of unbanked households cited “Do not have enough money to keep in an account” as a reason for not having an account, the most commonly cited reason. This reason was also the most commonly cited main reason for not having an account (34.0 percent).

• Almost one-third (30.2 percent) of unbanked households cited “Don’t trust banks” as a reason for not having an account, the second-most commonly cited reason. This reason was also the second-most commonly cited main reason (12.6 percent).

• As in previous years, higher proportions of unbanked households that previously had an account cited “Bank account fees are too high” (29.9 percent) or “Bank account fees are unpredictable” (24.9 percent) in 2017, compared with unbanked households that never had an account (21.1 and 17.0 percent, respectively

• Higher proportions of unbanked households that were not at all likely or not very likely to open a bank account in the next 12 months cited “Don’t trust banks” (36.2 and 31.5 percent, respectively) in 2017, compared with unbanked households that were somewhat likely or very likely to open a bank account in the next 12 months (24.7 and 21.0 percent, respectively).

Use of mobile banking to access a bank account continued to increase sharply, while use of bank tellers declined. Use of bank tellers, however, remained quite prevalent, particularly among segments of the population that had higher unbanked and underbanked rates.

• The proportion of banked households that used mobile banking to access their accounts in the past 12 months in-creased from 23.2 percent in 2013 to 31.9 percent in 2015 and 40.4 percent in 2017. The share of banked house-holds that used mobile banking as their primary method of account access also increased sharply from 2013 to 2017, both overall and across household characteristics.

• In 2017, almost three in four (73.6 percent) banked house-holds used bank tellers to access their accounts in the past 12 months, a higher proportion than any other meth-od asked about in the survey. However, use of bank tellers declined modestly between 2013 and 2017. The share of banked households that used bank tellers as their primary method of account access decreased substantially, both overall and across household characteristics; however, this method is still the second-most prevalent primary method overall after online banking.

******************
»Use of bank tellers as the primary means of account access remained quite prevalent among certain segments of the population, including lower-income households, less-educated households, older house-holds, and households in rural areas. These groups were also disproportionately more likely to access their accounts using only bank tellers.

*******************

nvm found my answer.

this sounds like some bullshit that they werent prepared to roll out (and might never be). or they couldnt afford the cost of development and are using whatever interest they generated via media and their waiting list size to persuade someone to invest capital.

how do you have a waiting/beta list when you dont even have a product to begin with? you still gonna do a staggered rollout months from now when you finally get something up and running?

https://bankgreenwood.com/faqs/
-----

Why can’t I sign up for my digital bank account today?
We strive to deliver the best-in-class digital banking services to you from day 1.
That means we put our product through robust testing to ensure bugs are identified and removed before we take your money. We will only move forward with the product launch when we can give you the product and services our community deserves. So, stick with us. It will not be long. Your opportunity to be a full Greenwood customer is right around the corner.

Why am I moving down on the waitlist?
People have the opportunity to move up on the waitlist by inviting friends who then sign up. You too can improve your position by inviting more of your friends and family to the community. Rest assured that either way, everyone will be allowed to be an active customer with Greenwood.
Thank you for your support.

but they announced during the pandemic.

totally forgot about this.

that think their entire customer base is made up of low info rubes who have no understanding of tech or previous launches of financial/software products.

‘everything is still going according to plan. we are just doing robust testing to get the remaining bugs out. stick with us. i swear your account is right around the corner.’

the fact they dont even have firm dates is a half ass joke. shit is mad unprofessional.

and then the waiting list thing where you move up/down based on referrals just sounds like a straight up deceitful scheme just to get people to tell other people to join.

If they rush some shit and it's broken on launch, niggas wouldn't hear the end of it. If they delay some shit, niggas wouldn't hear the end of it.

I'd rather them sit on it to make sure this it won't be Rush Card 2.0

And I've seen other tech companies employ this same strategy of waitlists and moving up the list. It's not that uncommon.

I respect the attempt and what they're trying to accomplish. Rome wasn't built in a day

until youve developed an actual product to deliver to people?

I'm not gonna sit here and act like I know the inner workings of marketing, but maybe they needed to gauge interest?

I'm sure there are some examples of successful products that have done the same thing.

is that how you normally approach things?

> this sounds like some bullshit that they werent prepared to roll out (and might never be). or they couldnt afford the cost of development and are using whatever interest they generated via media and their waiting list size to persuade someone to invest capital.

How I approach shit is not what we're talking about.

If this bank opens up and it's bullshit then I'll be the first to say so. As of right now we don't know anything.

What's your real issue with Greenwood? Is it just Killa Mike? Do you have issues with any of the other founders or board members?

and all three have to be new companies run by people who have no track record in the industry they're entering.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

i doubt theyre actually doing some staggered beta rollout anyway. theyll prolly just open it up to the public at once (if they open at all) so waiting list position will be irrelevant.

i think they just came up with a fake way to incentivize people for referrals without actually paying people for referrals (like other banks).

or giving someone $10 if they refer someone to use your product and then having all types of hurdles to actually get that $10.

businesses will do whatever they can to get more people interested in their product.

You’re acting like no musician has ever opened a bank before.

with the name thats a euphemism for strongarm robbery'.

kinda funny when you think about it.

>with the name thats a euphemism for strongarm robbery'.
>
>kinda funny when you think about.

Oh shit lol.

It’s kinda like if Meat Loaf tried to open a high-end French bistro..

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

"kill your masters" face ass.

please please read Mehrsa Baradaran's book, 'The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap'


it really made me realize what true autonomy and freedom means in this country.


I tried to dig into things as much as I could with the bank and I'm not sure if I'm fully on board. What I mean is...it seems to be more about symbolic empowerment and less about actual empowerment. Now, that dive was done several months ago and I cannot recall the exact point by point that brought me to the conclusion - but I recall the general sense that it seems like a good idea but its not offering critical infrastructure in areas of wealth building like homeloans, financing, financial products, competitive saving rates, ...although the 10k to one small business a month is excellent. I could see the power of the bank growing if it were to scale and a network effect were to take place...but as it stands, "eh."


That said, in the end, I support the bank because black banks are DYING.

They still haven't opened up for people to create accounts and use their proposed services.

They were bragging about getting $40 million in funding a few months ago, so I thought things were about to get moving. But I guess not.

I saw someone say Killer Mike's bank is starting to look like Dr. Umar's school. Lol.

but at this point it's garnered too much attention to fade a way. This is either gonna limp to a start or implode fabulously.

they've been emailing me about podcasts and no updates about the actual bank.

shits inexcusable.

They got a waiting list longer than a CVS receipt and still no sign of them actually opening up the bank, what a waste, yeah this going to be another dr.umar school situation.

https://lendistry.com/

They just announced a deal with Amazon this week.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210921005240/en/Amazon-and-Lendistry-Launch-Amazon-Community-Lending-Pilot-Program-to-Fuel-Growth-for-Small-and-Medium-sized-Businesses

I am always skeptical when a celebrity declare they are going to solve a problem when they have no track record or experience in that area. If they were really serious about it, they would throw their effort behind cats who are already doing it.



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I wasn't waiting cause I'm with Navy Federal. but I would love to put my money behind an idea like this.

But goddamn man

i snuck in off a credit message board finesse years ago. you could join some military associated non profit and pay the $10-20 membership dues and navy fed accepted their members/donors.

they were throwing me $20k lines on cards and plocs when my credit was kinda shaky. they played a big part in me rebuilding my shit into the 800s.

>they were throwing me $20k lines on cards and plocs when my
>credit was kinda shaky. they played a big part in me
>rebuilding my shit into the 800s.

>I am always skeptical when a celebrity declare they are going to solve a problem when they have no track record or experience in that area. If they were really serious about it, they would throw their effort behind cats who are already doing it.


if it's good, then they don't need celebrity endorsement to get buy-in

if it's not good, do you think, that even with the best of intentions, that a celebrity has the time and the know-how to sort through what the problems might be

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

it says a lot about you if the best you can do is killer mike lol.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

they have an iOS app currently in TestFlight. Card is coming in the mail. They have a $4.99 a month option that gives you access to Mastercard Golf whatever that is. I turned that down.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.