Authors: Adams, Margaret, and Rosser, Lawrence B
Summary
The authors begin with the acknowledgement that the conditions in and needs of different neighborhoods often vary considerably even within the same city, and that neither the development banking model discussed herein, nor any other “solution,” can be applied across the board. Nevertheless, a discussion of the South Shore National Bank belongs in the series of papers discussing private sector-initiated reinvestment strategies since it has become a national symbol for neighborhood groups, public officials and many bankers about the potential role that local financial institutions can play in revitalizing the areas in which they are chartered to do business.
Development banks are like any other commercial bank except for one important difference: their primary goal is to apply their resources — talent and credit — to the development of their communities. This does not mean that the managers of this institution eschew profit as a motivation. On the contrary, in fact, they pursue profits relentlessly, but they do so not solely in order to increase their stockholders’ earnings per share (as do most commercial banks), but rather to increase the resources available to rebuild their chartered service area.
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South Shore National Bank: A Neighborhood Development Institution
