Newsweek on Shorebank: Ethical Lending in Cities Still Works

A recent article in Newsweek gives props to Shorebank, a mission-based lender headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Cleveland and Detroit. Congratulations to Shorebank on positive news coverage, and for continuing to make ethical loans in urban neighborhoods in a difficult economy.

The article, entitled "A Risk Worth Taking" and written by Daniel Gross, states in part:

"Community-development banks, credit unions and other CDFIs—a mixture of faith-based and secular, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations—constitute what might be called the 'ethical subprime lending' industry. Even amid the worst housing crisis since the 1930s, many of these institutions sport healthy payback rates. They haven't bankrupted their customers or their shareholders. Nor have they rushed to Washington begging for bailouts. Their numbers include tiny startups and veterans like Chicago's ShoreBank, founded in 1973, which now sports $2.3 billion in assets, 418 employees and branches in Detroit and Cleveland."

You can read it here.