ShoreBank Blog
The ShoreBank Blog is your place to find ShoreBank news, new product information, and our insight into the banking world.
Archive for October, 2009
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Most banks offer their customers the option of banking online in addition to writing paper checks and conducting transactions at brick-and-mortar branches. However, at ShoreBank we see online banking as more than a way to provide convenient banking options (though it certainly does that). We also see it as an integral component of our commitment to the environment and our position as a triple bottom line institution.
The environmental impact of paperless, electronic banking should not be underestimated. We’re talking about more than the occasional four-by-two inch ATM receipt. For example, Greendig.net estimates that if every household in the U.S. switches to electronic banking, it would save 16.5 million trees each year. That’s paper for envelopes, paper for stamps, paper for checks…all being saved.
Many customers also seem specifically attracted to the green aspects of paperless banking. In 2008, Newsweek reported that 57% of U.S. consumers expressed an interest in green banking when polled about it.
ShoreBank has always seen its environmental commitment as integrally connected to its community development mission. For example, supporting businesses like Indie Energy—a company that designs and builds environmentally-friendly, renewable energy systems throughout the Chicago region— creates jobs for people in the community while making their homes more energy efficient and affordable. By encouraging energy-efficiency whether by financing a green business or providing homeowners with free energy-audits—ShoreBank is helping homeowners lower their utility bills and tackle global warning by working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Want to learn more? One easy-to-use tool for gaining a better understanding of the link between environmental and economic community development can be found on our new website, https://www.sbk.com/. It’s a fully-functional bank website with state-of-the-art technologies to make it easier to manage your money. It also has stories that will engage you in ShoreBank’s mission. Now you can manage your finances and build wealth while seeing, through customer stories, how we are building stronger, healthier communities and reinvigorating the lives of our customers.
So I am encouraging you to browse https://www.sbk.com to help “put a face” onto the opportunities and people we work with —both through online and good old fashioned brick-and-mortar banking. I think you’ll enjoy learning more and hope from these stories you will either begin or continue supporting ShoreBank in its mission.
Tags: community development, environmental sustainability, green banking, ShoreBank, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Green Collar | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
To help more hard working people buy their first home and speed up the end of the recession, the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, scheduled to expire December 1, 2009, ought to be extended into 2010.
Since its inception as a vital component of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the tax credit has assisted nearly 1.5 million Americans, providing $10 billion for the purchase of a new home. The first time home buyer is someone who has been without a principal residence for a three-year period. It is available for homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009, but does not have to be repaid. Vacation homes and rentals properties are ineligible.
Single tax-payers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 are eligible for the full tax credit. The credit reduces the new homeowner’s tax bill or increases their refund–dollar for dollar. Unlike most tax credits, the first-time home buyer credit is fully refundable. This difference means that the credit will be paid to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax owed. (For additional information about the home buyer tax credit, visit www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com.)
Helping homebuyers to realize homeownership and life in a strong, healthy community is not only ShoreBank’s mission, but also the dream of millions of Americans. Previously we could rely on consumer spending to lead us through the recession and onto the road of economic recovery, but not now. Those days, I am afraid, are gone. I believe an extension of the tax credit is necessary in order to help stabilize our communities by encouraging consumer spend on home purchases, generating the additional revenues local government agencies need and encouraging the home improvement projects which create the badly-needed new jobs. In fact, unemployment is the number one cause of housing foreclosures, so an extension of the tax credit is essential and best of all, it has proven it works.
The tax credit is in a great position to continue being successful. While some have blamed the mortgage meltdown due to the ease by which many buyers obtained unaffordable loans, most of the irresponsible lenders are no longer in business. And now there are fewer institutions serving the areas hardest hit by the recession, and yet there are plenty of hard working individuals and families out there who need quality loans, and who qualify for them too.
Some naysayers will point to the tax credit not coming cheaply to American taxpayers. It is estimated to be costing taxpayers about $1 billion a month, but much of the tax credit will inevitably pay for itself. So now is the time for our government to invest in our housing market, our communities, and our taxpayers. Besides its proven record for speeding up the economic recovery, it is also a “tried and tested” formula for creating new jobs that will prevent future foreclosures and help stabilize entire communities.
Tags: community development, green banking, home affordability and stability plan, home ownership, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Mortgage Lending | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
The explosive growth in funding for utility-led efficiency programs is one of the most hopeful signs for bolstering energy efficiency efforts in the Midwest and across the country. Thanks to a growing number of states instituting energy efficiency portfolio standards, funding levels are expected to multiply in the coming years. Indeed, according to the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, utilities are expected to spend nearly $900 million annually on energy efficiency in the region by 2012. In Illinois, annual funding will top $250 million by then, up from under $10 million just a few years ago. This level of sustained spending could be transformational on many levels.
However, one detail that gets too little attention is the degree to which important policy decisions regarding priorities, goals, and acceptable uses of these funds have fallen to the regulatory bodies overseeing utilities. While extremely competent and professional, these commissions were established to set utility rates, adjudicate grievances, and ensure continuity of services – not administer programs, promote economic development, nor be the driving force behind the enormous task of transitioning the economy to a low carbon future. In essence, we have transformed the judiciary into a unit of the executive branch without any discussion of the benefits, consequences, or merits of doing so. More alarming, we have done so for one of the most pressing and important challenges we face as a nation (and species).
One consequence of managing these funds through the commission process is that decisions are made according to a very narrow set of criteria. Particularly important is the amount of energy saved compared to resources expended – with no consideration given to the overall economic output produced, jobs created or maintained, markets transformed, or dollars leveraged. Nor does the process evaluate the equanimity of how funds are spent, with assurances of equal distribution to all geographies, incomes, and sectors. Accountability is thought of primarily in terms of seeing that the money produces tangible energy savings, not any of the other elements we all expect and demand from government, such as open access, transparency, helping disadvantaged communities and businesses, incenting innovation, etc.
Given the importance of the decisions being made and the coming scarcity of public dollars, we need a healthy debate about which investments should be made, which outcomes and evaluation metrics are most pertinent, and what process should be used for measuring success and impact. Some states, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, have created new bodies to ensure that investment decisions better reflect a broad array of policy goals. In Massachusetts, for instance, alternative energy investments are directed by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which seeks to increase installed capacity, as well as foster other important priorities, such as driving innovation, improving global competitiveness, and fomenting job creation. Hopefully, the establishment of these new agencies and wider set of priorities portends the start of the necessary and critical discussion about our best way forward.
Tags: Blog Action Day, Climate Change, community development, green banking, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Green Collar | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
By Mary Houghton, cofounder and President, ShoreBank Corporation
The recent Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference focused on “how” the world can address urgent global needs like providing greater access to quality health care and education, and creating sustainable economies. Finance turned out to be one of the “hows.”
President Clinton used his convening capacity to bring private, public, philanthropic and nonprofit partners together in “commitments” (a firm commitment of an amount to launch or expand a scalable program) that gained support and sometimes funding from their presence and coverage at the event. The CGI also featured progress reports on previous “commitments,” showing the power of past conferences. The areas of impact included strides made in expanding access to finance for the poor.
This was an excellent forum for discussing new ideas and models in the field of financial services, of which there are many, like a dramatic increase in small business lending or using microfinance platforms to deliver other services. In the wake of the current global financial crisis, many voices are pointing to the failure of the globe’s largest banks and financial institutions and are seeking either a return to local-scale banking or to business practices that create value beyond short-term financial profits.
This backdrop only increased the urgency my colleagues and I felt about our participation. CGI selected Jan Piercy, Executive Vice President, ShoreBank to be a Finance Track leader, responsible for designing a plenary and three working sessions. In addition to my speaking role on a breakout panel on how banks might better serve consumers who are without access to affordable, traditional banking services, a number of ShoreBank Directors, managers, partners and “alums” served as Finance Track advisors, moderators and speakers.
ShoreBank was also involved in five new “commitments” during CGI 2009, of which three of them were selected to be publicly announced during the sessions. They include:
* John Berdes and his colleagues at ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia working with more than a dozen organizations in Oregon to create a new loan program to improve energy efficiency for homeowners in Portland and ultimately, elsewhere in the state. The program could grow to be very large and be replicated nationally. This caught the eye of the Clinton Global Initiative staff and the “commitment” was announced by President Clinton at a special plenary session.
* Arjan Schutte of the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) was recognized in a working session for CFSI’s commitment to establish the Core Fund to finance businesses extending financial products and services to low-income consumers.
* ShoreCap Exchange’s “commitment” to create a Small Business Network to support local financial institutions extending credit to smaller borrowers in developing and emerging markets around the world.
It was also announced that ShoreBank is a founding member of the Investors Council of the Global Impact Investing Network, which committed to expanding the ways to evaluate social as well as financial returns on investments. ShoreBank’s partners in The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) are Triodos and BRAC. Our three institutions became co-sponsors of a new network of banks that have a triple bottom-line core business model. Launched in early 2009, GABV’s next annual meeting will be in Dhaka in March 2010. Banks with at least $100 million in assets and central social banking focus are sought to join the alliance.
Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of CGI was former President Clinton participating in a half-dozen sessions with all the facts at his fingertips, a passion for change that would benefit ordinary people, and with a strong, often apolitical point of view.
Not surprising? Matt Damon and Brad Pitt can give good speeches!
The Clinton Global Initiative invites members back year after year to report on progress (and obstacles) in achieving commitments made in earlier years. This lends more reality and honesty than is usual in these venues. For example, Brad Pitt reported on some very attractive green housing built by Make It Right in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. He was proud of the hundred-some houses now up and occupied but also modest enough to wish it were hundreds more.
For additional information on all the ShoreBank companies, visit www.shorebankcorp.com or www.sbk.com.
Tags: Clinton Global Initiative, community development, green banking, Mary Houghton, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Banking Industry | 1 Comment »
