Community
Financial Empowerment
Generational wealth, built in public. Budgeting, investing, real estate, credit — the money talks our families didn't always get to have.
The brief
Where the Black-owned banks are, and what a deposit does there
A Black-owned bank is a Minority Depository Institution, which is a designation the FDIC makes and publishes, not a description a bank gives itself. That means there is an official list, and you can check it.
What the designation actually means
A bank qualifies as an MDI on either of two tests: minority individuals hold 51% or more of the voting stock, or a majority of the board is minority and the community it serves is predominantly minority. It is a regulatory status, and the FDIC keeps the list current.
How many there are
There were 157 FDIC-insured MDIs as of 31 March 2026, of which roughly twenty to twenty-five are Black-owned. That is the whole national field, which is why where you bank is a decision with a short list rather than an endless one.
The reason it is not a gesture
A deposit in a community bank is lent inside the community that bank sits in. Moving an account is the rare civic act that costs nothing and does something, and the National Bankers Association exists to tell you which lender is genuinely in your area.
CDFI is a separate thing worth knowing
A Community Development Financial Institution is certified by the U.S. Treasury on its mission to serve underserved markets. A CDFI is not necessarily Black-owned and an MDI is not necessarily a CDFI. If you are looking to borrow rather than deposit, the CDFI list is often the more useful one.
Every link above was fetched on 2026-08-31 before it was published. Four were dead on the first pass and were replaced rather than printed.
They did this work first
The RecordDoing it now
The directory154 Black-owned businesses in this directory work in what this room is about. Counted from the listings, so it moves when they do.