North Carolina tech company switches to Black-owned community bank for $3M account
CEO wants to give back to the community
A North Carolina tech company is putting $3 million into one of the nation's oldest Black-owned banks in the wake of George Floyd's death.
Global Data Consortium, a global identity verification platform based in Raleigh, recently raised several million dollars of capital. Global Data Consortium CEO Bill Spruill said choosing to open an account with M&F Bank, based in nearby Durham, North Carolina, offered a way to have an "immediate impact" on the community.
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"All banking is the same, but in the case of putting our money with M&F versus Silicon Valley Bank, that money gets used by a completely different community set," Spruill told FOX Business. "That’s important both from a local community perspective here in Raleigh but also from the minority community impact perspective as well."
Bill Spruill is CEO of Global Data Consortium. (Courtesy Global Data Consortium)
M&F Bank, founded as Mechanics and Farmers Bank, was chartered by the North Carolina state legislature in 1907 during a time when Black Americans faced huge obstacles to obtaining loans whether for their businesses or personal finances.
Today, M&F Bank is a $264 million bank with a loan portfolio that is about 90 percent commercial.
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"A statistic we like to tout is that we recycle 83 percent of our deposits back into the community in the form of loans, and that just helps the entire community improve and be healthier," M&F Bank CEO James Sills, a graduate of Morehouse College, a historically Black men's college, told FOX Business.
The bank has locations throughout North Carolina.
An M&F bank location. (Courtesy M&F Bank)
Sills called Global Data Consortium's decision a "powerful statement."
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Spruill, who is Black, hopes other North Carolina business leaders will make similar statements.
"I’m challenging a number of my peers in the community at tech companies to absolutely follow the lead here," he said. "I’ve had a few, one or two, reach out directly to me and engage to say how do we make this happen."