Carver Federal Savings Bank has come a long way from its early days as a storefront with two employees and a cash register. Headquartered in Harlem, today the bank has 108 employees.
This African American owned institution is named after a well known black scientist and educator, George Washington Carver. This symbolic institution was founded in 1948 by a group of black business persons, civic and church leaders out of concern for the difficulty African Americans faced in obtaining credit. Originally chartered as a Savings and Loan Association the name was changed to Carver Federal Savings Bank in 1986. Richard Greene, president at the time of the name change remarked that “Carver is not a commercial bank but a community bank”. On October 24, 1996 Carver Federal went public on Nasdaq stock market and is traded under the symbol CARV. Stock Market® under the symbol CARV.
The Antiguan experience is analogous to that of Carver Federal Savings. Out of concern for their people, in 1955, nine visionary businessmen, Sir Louis Lockhart, Mr. Casford Murray, Mr. Kenneth Techiera, Mr. Egbert E. Harney (deceased), Dr. Luther Winter (deceased), Mr. Henry D.C. Moore (deceased), Mr. George. E. Maynard (deceased), Mr. Emmanuel Farara (deceased), and Mr. Thomas G. Josiah Joseph founded the Antigua Commercial Bank. They, together with Harold A.A. Tomlinson (deceased), also comprised the first Board of Directors. The Bank, which started as the Antigua Cooperative Bank Limited, in its infancy operated as a savings and loans institution providing an opportunity to a section of the community that up until then had little or no source of assistance. The name of the institution was changed in 1972 to the Antigua Commercial Bank (ACB) as it widened its services and scope of operations into commercial banking business.
Over its 50 years of history ACB has made and continues to make significant milestone contributions to nation building and development. In 1987, for instance, ACB created a subsidiary ACB Mortgage and Trust Company Limited, Antigua and Barbuda’s first indigenous home mortgage institution which focused on expanding home ownership in the country. To date the Company has granted well over $100 million in mortgage loans and greatly expanded the housing stock in Antigua. It has also led the way in developing Thrift Funds to assist employers in providing for the retirement needs of their employees. ACB played no small role in defining the financial landscape of Antigua by being the first to deploy ATMs in the Eastern Caribbean, pioneering student loans, floating long term bonds to revolutionize the mortgage market and enhance the country’s tourism infrastructure. The Bank has amassed over EC$600 million in assets and is held as a model of the wealth that can be achieved when indigenous resources are combined.
Access to credit for blacks and the under-privileged in society seem to have been a common theme for the founding of indigenous financial institutions in the region as well. The mid to late 1970’s saw the birth of national commercial banks in Dominica, St. Vincent, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Grenada with the government of these islands being the primary mover and shareholder. In 1977 for example, the Jamaican Government acquired all the shares of Barclays Bank of Jamaica Limited and changed its name to National Commercial Bank of Jamaica. In 1986 shares were issued to the public and the bank became listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The National Commercial Bank of Grenada Ltd. was incorporated as a state owned bank in October 1979. In 1980, the Bank acquired the Grenada operations of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and also purchased the Grenville branch operations of the Royal Bank of Canada.
As we close the curtains on black history month, it is worth assessing the lessons to be learned by people of colour from the examples set by ACB, other indigenous financial institutions in the region and Carver Federal Savings Bank. Most noteworthy are that:
- A vision founded out of meeting the needs of people is an enduring one
- Pooling resources can create wealth greater than the sum of our individual strengths.
- The correct mobilization of local resources can help to transform a nation.
- Honoring the confidence of the local investor breads more confidence.
- There is value in leaving a heritage for our children.
We should ask ourselves how many other opportunities have we lost in not creating other commercial institutions that will deliver national and human development?
Contributed by Antigua Commercial Bank
