My name is Horacio Mendez and I’m the President and CEO of the Woodstock Institute. I’d like to start by commending the City Council on ensuring that the City of Chicago does business with banks that align with its values through the introduction and passage of the Lending Equity Ordinance and through hearings and discussions like this one. I’m also encouraged to see more banks responding to the City’s RFP….

Even though we acknowledge that the average bank serving Chicago isn’t doing as good a job as many of us would like, there are quite a few that are performing above average.

Our ultimate goal is to see that average increase year over year … and I think this data shows improvement, especially as this information is being made public in venues like this.

Like last year, we looked to see if there were any institutions that performed above average on all of our analyses. This year, we have a tie between Bank of America and last year’s champion, Citibank.

Our hope is that this kind of analysis and public discussion, along with added information provided by the LEO, can set a baseline of performance that we can use to assess and highlight those banks that are performing better each year.

Our ideal is for you to have clarity regarding how these institutions are performing when you make decisions regarding who the City should do business with.