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I was reading this article this morning and it has made me reflect on some items. We are at a dire but also hopeful point in our history.
And I want all of us as policy makers to take issues of access to capital more seriously than we ever!
Thread 1/12 https://www.chicagotribune.com/living/health/ct-life-inequity-data-policy-roots-chicago-20200726-r3c7qykvvbfm5bdjm4fpb6g5k4-story.html
And I want all of us as policy makers to take issues of access to capital more seriously than we ever!
Thread 1/12 https://www.chicagotribune.com/living/health/ct-life-inequity-data-policy-roots-chicago-20200726-r3c7qykvvbfm5bdjm4fpb6g5k4-story.html
A little over a year ago I had the honor of being named the Director of Banking for the Illinois Division of Banking. I came to this job with the first order goal to open our fiscal system up and combat the inequities of our system in whatever way we could.
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I came to this job with some already learned knowledge.
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That access to capital was uneven. Where over 45 percent of African American households are under or unbanked (According to the Fed Reserve 2019). That mortgage loan applications denial rates in Chicago are nearly three times higher among black borrowers as whites.
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That minority representation in banking is also abysmal. Where out of the 4,437 US commercial banks just 33 are majority Latinx owned, just 21 majority black owned.
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An in addition to ownership, employment within the banking fields is also one sided. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 75.1% of workers in Banking identify as white, compared to 11.5% identifying as African American and 10.9% as Latinx.
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But I have also learned things in a year.
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The Pandemic has laid bare to me more inequities in our system. In this crisis my office has worked to get deals with student loan servicers over relief for private loans, worked with banks to get free checking for stimulus checks to the unbanked, and many more items.
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And I am very proud of my team and my colleagues have done, and of @GovPritzker and @LtGovStratton and the many others who supported these efforts.
But what is clear is that we are not close to being finished.
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But what is clear is that we are not close to being finished.
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Issues remain with the federal government, issues remain with our system as a whole, issues that must be solved if we are ever to succeed as a total community.
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So my charge is to everyone working in policy to make issues of inequity your number one issue. Not to figure out later, to do now.
And my solemn promise is while I have the honor to work on these issues I will do so with every fiber of my being.
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And my solemn promise is while I have the honor to work on these issues I will do so with every fiber of my being.
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Love you all, let's keep on doing the hard work.
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