Through the intercession of Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, OneUnited Bank was given $12,000,000 of TARP money last fall, despite the bank being subject to a cease and desist order from the FDIC because of a number of rules violations. In its application for TARP money, the bank wrote "Unlike majority banks, which principally focus on profit, the express mission of minority banks is to promote these underbanked, underprivileged communities." So, one would think the residents of these underbanked and underprivileged communities would be loaned some of our money. Some actually were. But, if the bank's record in 2007 is a guide (they issued 3 home mortgages that year) , not too many of these residents actually got any money.
The loans went to churches, owners of apartment buildings and such residents as Calvin Grimes who got $550,000 for a mortgage on his house here on the Vineyard. Other developers also got significant money from the minority-owned bank.
The bank has not been a sterling citizen. In addition to getting slammed by the FDIC, the bank had problems complying with the Community Investment Act, which the bank president calls outdated and "not a thinking man's tool."
It's not only the big banks that are not being good citizens.
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