The Baltimore Banner, August 30, 2022, For Decades, African American Communities Have Been Without Enough Local Banking Storefronts
While Northwood and Mondawmin get new banking opportunities, a general decline in the use of storefront banks has exacerbated the problem with most banking deserts. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that two-thirds of banking institutions in the U.S. have disappeared since the 1980s, dropping from nearly 18,000 in 1984 to fewer than 5,000 in 2021. According to the NCRC, Baltimore was among the top 50 metro areas with the most bank branches in 2017. By 2021, it lost at least 96.
