As the country’s largest Black-owned bank, OneUnited announced it has reached 100,000 customers across America.
Read More: Bounce TV’s Ryan Glover, Killer Mike and Andrew Young establish Black-owned digital bank
A press release cited recent efforts towards social justice activism supported by the bank as a reason for the swift growth in clientele. The company first saw a surge in 2016 when rapper Killer Mike empowered a national call to bank Black in response to police brutality and racism. Now in 2020, the death of George Floyd sparked another movement where Black Americans rushed to change their financial provider to a Black-owned institution.
theGrio reported the digital movement #MyBlackReceipt tracked $7.4 million spent with Black-owned companies over a 17-day period at the height of national demonstrations.
“We sent out an email to our listserv of over 40,000 people and our site crashed, and it was out of commission for another 12 hours,” founder Kezia Williams told the theGrio in July on the rush from consumers to support the cause.
Read More: Insider Q&A: City First CEO on why Black-led banks matter
“Our customer base continues to grow rapidly, and we have expanded access and now have over 100,000 locations to better meet their needs. Importantly, we’re on our way to fulfilling Black America’s long-held dream of organizing our spending power to create social and economic equality in our society,” said Teri Williams, President & COO of OneUnited Bank, in the provided release.
To keep up with its large customer base, OneUnited agreed to a new partnership with Green Dot to deposit cash on the go in over 100,000 locations nationwide like Walmart & CVS. OneUnited also announced a new service coinciding with customer growth. The company introduced the new “Cash to Your Card,” service that gives customers access to an additional 90,000 locations. This adds to the bank’s ability to service every customer nationwide.
Recently, Killer Mike announced his own banking initiative. According to theGrio, he partnered with Bounce TV founder and President Ryan Glover to launch Greenwood, a new digital bank tailored to the Black and Latinx communities.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!