OneUnited Bank, which is known as the largest Black-owned bank in the United States, is rising in numbers alongside the Black Lives Matter movement.
When talking to TMZ, the bank’s CEO, Kevin Choee, said that just in the month of June alone, the company saw a 50% increase in customer base and a record of 50 million deposits into several accounts.
Choee added that compared to 2019, OneUnited Bank’s website traffic, and high demand for the companies’ multiple services have skyrocketed 100 percent.
As a result of their increased demand, the bank has had to up their number of customer service representatives by 50 percent and double their social media staff.
With their growing business, the company has also made it a point to give back by helping those in need. One of those individuals was Kammeo Bennett, a Black woman, according to TMZ.
When COVID-19 first struck in America, Bennett, a mother of 7, was working as an uber driver. Because of the virus, she was no longer able to receive normal income and turned to banks for help.
It wasn’t until she found OneUnited Bank did Bennett go through with the Paycheck Protection Program loan, as she felt more comfortable with them being a woman of color. In return, she became the bank’s first customer to be awarded the PPP loan.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Cohee credits new technology rollouts that assisted in making the companies’ online banking system easier and a Harriet Tubman debit card in February to the increase in business.
He also acknowledged that the Black community began to put more of their money into Black-owned businesses, including OneUnited, after the nationwide news of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and George Floyd’s death at the hands of four police officers.
According to the publication, the CEO’s bank is “founded on engaging in the social activism that people want to support … and that’s the major reason for the spike.”
Today (July 7), the bank showed its support for Blackout Day 2020, which is a business boycott to convince individuals to only support businesses that are Black-owned.
