NCRC

Even before the pandemic, numerous studies cited the decline in bank branches. A study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) estimated 13,000 bank branches closed between 2008 and 2020*. Today’s most innovative banks are being rewarded by charting a new, digital path to provide a better customer experience while increasing security, meeting KYC compliance requirements, and entering new markets.

For example, according to analysis by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the U.S. saw a 5.13% loss of bank branches across the country from 2017 through the third quarter of 2020. With COVID-19 accelerating interest in digital banking services, consolidation within the banking industry and near-zero interest rates exerting pressure on banks’ bottom lines, 2021 is likely to be yet another big year for branch closures.

Last autumn, Murphy followed up with a story on a report by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition that found Rochester neighborhoods “redlined” to include primarily Black residents had higher rates of COVID-19 infection.

“The hill is very steep,” said Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a group that promotes fairness in banking and housing. “I don’t think we’ve even begun to put a dent in that problem.”

In a syndicated opinion piece published on Thursday, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) chief of programs and strategic development Sabrina Terry and Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, chief of membership, policy, and equity at NCRC and an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote that “Juneteenth reminds us to be critical of how progress is measured.”

She also serves on the board of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. She has spent decades as an activist building collaborations to promote housing with government agencies and community advocates.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (voter): “We saw in the last expansion that unemployment could go to 50 year lows without troubling inflation and we put that to work.” (Remarks at National Community Reinvestment Coalition, May 3)

“The hill is very steep,” said Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a group that promotes fairness in banking and housing. “I don’t think we’ve even begun to put a dent in that program.”