Black-owned banks are struggling to remain relevant

Black-owned banks are struggling to remain relevant and during difficult economic times, according to a report by HuffingtonPost.com

The number of black-owned banks across the nation is shrinking– almost half of the banks closed in the past two decades.

HuffingtonPost.com reports:

Their traditional customer base — lower and middle class blacks, small business owners and churches — has been disproportionately affected by high unemployment, leaving customers with less money to deposit and, in turn, leaving many of these smaller financial institutions with less capital to reinvest in their communities. As customers have fallen on hard times or fallen behind in their loan repayments or mortgages, home foreclosures have become a nagging issue, hamstringing banks’ portfolios with toxic loans