Black banks are an endangered species. As they close, so do windows of opportunity for communities of color.

Today, only 18 Black-owned banks remain in the United States, according to the FDIC. And only one manages assets in excess of $1 billion. This undercapitalization has severely restricted Black banks’ ability to compete and underwrite credit. 

The retrenchment of Black-owned banks, coupled with mainstream banks’ absence from neighborhoods of color, has created tremendous disparities between the banked and unbanked populations, and to the country’s wealth gap in general.

Putting Black banks on a glide path to greater capitalization sets Black families on track to generating wealth—real wealth, the sort that white families pass down at an amount almost 200 times greater on average than Blacks. That’s the sort of transformative solution families need to escape the continuum of poverty.

The National Black Bank Foundation provides expert legal, regulatory, and operational support to Black-owned banks as they work to scale to meet underserved communities. Learn more about our unique and comprehensive approach and together let’s erase America’s racial wealth gap.