America’s largest Black-owned bank is taking the #BankBlack and #BuyBlack movements to new levels. OneUnited Bank debuted the Greenwood Visa Debit Card on Oct. 27.
OneUnited Bank is Pioneer of Bank Black Movement
OneUnited was founded more than 50 years ago with offices in Los Angeles, Boston, and Miami. It grew to become the largest Black-owned bank with “almost $700 million in assets,” according to OneUnited CEO Kevin Cohee.
OneUnited Bank began in 1968 with the opening of Unity Bank & Trust in Boston, MA. OneUnited Bank was established by combining Black-owned banks across the country — Founders National Bank of Commerce and Family Savings Bank, both in Los Angeles, Peoples National Bank of Commerce in Miami and Boston Bank of Commerce.
Summer of 2020 Boosts Bank Black Movement and OneUnited
The summer of 2020 took the bank’s success to another level. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, there was a racial reckoning that put a long overdue focus on a combination of social and economic justice for African-Americans. The unrest prompted the Bank Black movement to be resurrected last summer, and this benefited OneUnited.
“In 2020, the bank doubled its customer base to 100,000 customers. The meteoric growth of OneUnited Bank is directly tied to the immense interest in, and support for the Bank Black movement, which began in 2016 and then went to the next level in 2020 in the wake of the racial justice protests over the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. OneUnited Bank has always been at the forefront of the fight for social and economic justice. We are ‘unapologetically Black,’” said Cohee.
OneUnited Offers Financial Literacy to African-American Customers
OneUnited Bank is devoted to helping African-Americans become financially independent through financial literacy iniatives.
“OneUnited Bank’s mission is to make financial literacy a core value in the Black community. The bank offers a fantastic, comprehensive Financial Education Center free to the public in a series of easy-to-understand playlists on a wide number of financial topics,” Cohee told Finurah.
Read more about how OneUnited is honoring Black Wall Street here at Finurah.
