It's not every day that you meet someone who is attempting to accomplish a feat that's never been done before. James R. Mundy is that someone.
Mundy is leading the effort to launch BankBlackwell, which is poised to become the first African-American-owned Internet-only bank. Not only that, BankBlackwell would
also become the nation's only national bank with African-American ownership.
"This is designed to address what I perceive to be a serious void in the African-American community, which doesn't have a national financial institution" says Mundy. "We have
a lot of community-based entities, but this comes at a greater cost to the national community as a whole."
As of today, there are 45 financial institutions that are owned by African-Americans. The largest is New York's Carver Federal Savings Bank, with total assets of $648
million. Mundy was formerly the chief operating officer of the nation's second-largest African-American financial institution, OneUnited Bank in Boston (with $540 million
in assets). He left OneUnited in 2003 to head the BankBlackwell effort and will serve as president and CEO of the new institution.
BankBlackwell received its charter from the Office of Thrift Supervision to organize as a federal savings bank in February 2005 and the FDIC gave its seal of
approval in September 2005. At the moment, Mundy is on the road serving as both PR and IR champion of the new institution to build both awareness and to generate investments in
BankBlackwell. On both counts, Mundy has met with receptive audiences.
"We've had investors from grandchildren to institutions," he says.
African-American churches have been a strong source of investors in the bank. BankBlackwell created its Church Investment Program to encourage faith-based institutions to
purchase shares of BankBlackwell's common stock. The program's minimum $1,000 subscription is designed to facilitate churches of all sizes to participate.
To promote the program, Mundy has been crisscrossing the country to meet personally with church groups. His efforts paid off divinely: Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in
Pittsburgh was the first faith-based group to join the program last January with a $50,000 investment; subsequent financial input has come from churches in seven states and the
District of Columbia.
Mundy is also focusing on investments from what he dubs "community minded corporations" who are keenly aware of the African-American consumer power.
Mundy hopes to have BankBlackwell online and open for business by September.
Contact: James R. Mundy, [email protected].