Chase, Indiana’s largest bank, with 53 branches alone in Marion County, is closing as many as one-third of their branches in African-American majority neighborhoods. An action that will have severe repercussions on at least one, possibly two, hard hit Indy neighborhoods.
On July 30, the Chase at 38th & Washington Boulevard closes; August 20, the Chase on MLK at Eugene, between 29th and 30th, closes.
Closing the Chase on 38th doesn’t remove banking options in the area.
The MLK closing does as Chase’s decision sentences the entire Riverside/United Northwest Area Development Corporation (UNWA) neighborhoods, thousands west of MLK to Kessler Boulevard, as far north as 38th and south to 10th, to a destiny of no access to full banking services.
Chase, which has the worst public relations operation of any major Indy company, never told media about any of these closings.
A caller on the July 6 WTLC-AM (1310’s) “Afternoons with Amos” tipped me off to Chase’s nefarious decision which will pose a hardship to the many seniors, disabled and poor folks in the area.
The massive banking mergers between 1991 and 2004 made Chase Indianapolis’ dominant bank. A leading national research firm reports 36 percent of Indy metro households bank at Chase. Among African-Americans, 30.6 percent bank at Chase. But Chase isn’t the top financial institution among Indy’s Blacks. Credit unions are with 39.3 percent of Blacks using them.
This isn’t the first time heartless bankers tried to strip Riverside/UNWA of banking services. Some 30 years ago, the legendary Glenn Howard fought American Fletcher National Bank (AFNB) from closing that same branch.
Back then, the Riverside/UNWA neighborhood associations were powerful. They, Howard and the area’s churches fought like hell and made AFNB back down.
Today, Riverside/UNWA are neighborhood associations that seemingly exist in name only, powerless to act.
Flanner House, the areas’s multi-service center has helped create a “quality of life plan” for Riverside/UNWA. When I talked with Flanner House’s Director Wilbert Buckner about the Chase mess, he was “aware of it.” He even had a copy of the letter Chase sent bank customers about the closings.
The numerous churches in Riverside/UNWA, many with highly visible pastors, have sat mute in this crisis.
Congressman Andre Carson and his staff are involved and engaged in pressing Chase for answers and action. So are Sen. Greg Taylor and Rep. Greg Porter and the areas’ City-County Councilors.
But, like their arrogant CEO Jamie Dimon, Chase lobbyists and public relation folks have acted arrogantly toward Indy’s Black elected officials and Black media, refusing to provide basic, public information on the closings. In some cases resorting to outright lies.
The Ballard Administration has also acted irresponsibly in this crisis.
When I asked Deputy Mayor Olgen Williams last week whether he knew about Chase’s abdication of Riverside/UNWA, stunningly Williams said yes. But seemingly he’s doing nothing to save the bank.
I guess Williams is following his boss’ actions as Ballard seems to be coasting; doing nothing to benefit Indy residents except ram those damn electric cars down our throats.
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is a Federal law requiring banks to show how they’re investing in LMI (low/moderate income) neighborhoods.
Chase claims their closings won’t harm those communities. I asked Chase to back up their brag with facts.
It took a week before Chase public relation mavens responded to my questions.
They claimed Chase has “more branches in low-to-moderate-income (LMI) areas than any other bank.”
I tested their claim.
An LMI neighborhood is defined by the Feds as a Census Tract where Median Family Income is 80 percent of the median family income for the entire metropolitan area.
Of the city/county’s 224 Census tracts; 129 (57.6 percent) meet the LMI standard.
Of Chase’s Marion County Banks, 24 (45.3 percent) are in LMI census tracts.
Most disturbing, is the racial composition of the areas where Chase banks are located.
Of their 53 branches, only nine are located in Black-majority census tracts. Their MLK location has the highest Black population percentage: 89.7 percent.
More ominous, several sources tell me Chase plans to close another city/county location, in an area with the third highest percentage of Black population of any Chase area.
That would mean Chase would be closing a third of their branches in Black-majority neighborhoods. Reducing banks in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Blacks smacks of blatant racial red lining.
To be fair, banks are losing in-bank customers. Online and mobile phone banking has taken off. But that’s where Chase’s conceit and ignorance of our Black community kicks in.
The Census ACS reports 2-in-11 Black city/county households (18.1 percent) don’t have a computer and 20.8 percent with computers don’t have an Internet subscription. That compares to 12.7 percent of white city/county households without computers and 8.5 percent of white households with computers not having Internet connections.
For Chase to punish Black-majority, low-income neighborhoods for lacking computer and/or Internet access is the height of hubris and insensitivity.
Chase may have a sterling name on Wall Street, but stripping African-Americans in Riverside/UNWA and other Black-majority neighborhoods of banking services is callous, reprehensible and needs to be protested by every institution in our community!
See ‘ya next week at Black Expo!
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
