‘Bank Local’ Month Highlights Community Banks’ Importance

Filed Under: Banking, More News, Non Profit News

This April, the nonprofit Love Live Local joins partners throughout North America to highlight “Move Your Money Month: Bank Local.”

This campaign which will be celebrated from Cape Cod and Cambridge to La Crosse, Wisc., and Sonoma, Calif., urges individuals to support community banks and credit unions and emphasizes choosing a local bank as one of the easiest ways to support our local economy.

“We were so inspired to join this nationwide effort to spread the word about the importance of banking with local banks,” said Love Live Local CEO Amanda Converse. “Thinking locally is about more than spending your dollars locally, it’s about investing in your community, and that starts with where your dollars are deposited.”

Small businesses depend heavily on small, local banks for financing. They account for more than half of all small business lending. Big banks, meanwhile, allocate relatively little of their resources to small businesses.

According to the Small Business Administration, community banks served nearly 60 percent of Paycheck Protection Program loans to help small businesses retain more than 3.7 million employees. On the other hand, national and international banks distributed just 17 percent of their Payroll Protection Program funding to local businesses.

The three banks headquartered on Cape Cod – Cape Cod 5, the Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod and Seamen’s Bank – have played a vital role in getting resources to local businesses throughout the pandemic, Converse noted, but their contributions to the community did not start and do not end there.

According to Mighty, a bank comparison site that analyzes public data from all 10,000+ banks and credit unions in the U.S. that report to the government how they use customer money, the local banks on Cape Cod far outperform their large corporate counterparts.

Cape Cod 5 invests $77 for every $100 in deposits; The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod $71; and Seamen’s $52, which are all high above the industry average. They all also rate above average when it comes to small business and housing lending. Whereas Bank of America and TD Bank invest $26 and $34 for every $100 respectively, both below the industry average. They also do not rate as impressive small business or housing lenders.

“The numbers don’t lie, our local banks are clearly invested in this community,” Converse said, “large banks simply take local deposits and invest them in far away. This is money that is needed to grow our communities and small businesses, which are essential for creating diverse wealth, family wealth and generational wealth.”