Pagedale residents recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the city’s first-ever full-service bank, Midwest Bank Centre. The bank, located at the Rosie Shields Manor Senior Living Facility at 6810 Page Ave., saw nearly $6 million in deposits and approximately $2.5 million in loans, surpassing its one-year benchmark.
“Over the years, the banking industry has erroneously made the conclusion that there wasn’t a profit to be made in low-income and minority communities,” Chris Krehmeyer, president and CEO of Beyond Housing, said last year at the bank’s unveiling.
The bank serves businesses and residents in a previously unbanked and underserved area, where previously the only financial options in the community for most residents were payday loans and check-cashing facilities.
Banking officials developed financial services tailored to meet neighborhood needs, advised by community partners such as Beyond Housing, Better Family Life, Habitat for Humanity, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Justine Petersen, Mount Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, the City of Pagedale, the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council and the Metro St. Louis Coalition for Inclusion and Equity.
Midwest Bank Centre (MBC) Vice President of Business Banking John Shivers said he has reached out to more than 100 businesses, churches and non-profit organizations. Approximately 70 percent of the outreach has been to minority- or women-owned enterprises, Shivers said.
The Pagedale branch offers affordable home improvement loans to improve and stabilize low- to moderate-income neighborhoods. This year, it has closed 70 home improvement loans.
Other services include Confidence Checking, a low-cost checking account; low-interest loans to support homeownership by working in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and the Northside Community Housing; and financial empowerment through financial literacy workshops.
MBC Community Development Officer David Noble, who chairs the Metropolitan St. Louis Community Reinvestment Act Association, has conducted approximately 40 financial literacy workshops this year on topics like budgeting, credit management and home ownership. These workshops were held at MBC branches and other locations throughout the community.
Bad habits, generational mistrust of banks and a lack of understanding of how banks work are some reasons why people have fallen into financial traps, Shivers said.
“No matter what level of income, people are vulnerable to making bad financial decisions,” Noble said. “The only difference with those at lower-level incomes is that they have a margin of error that’s slim to none.”
MBC Senior Vice President and Director of Community Development Alex Fennoy co-chairs the St. Louis Regional Unbanked Task Force and its “Bank On Save Up” initiative launched in February 2013 with a goal of engaging 20,000 households in mainstream banking over the next two years.
“Outreach has been extremely important to us,” said Jim Watson, president and CEO of MBC. “Our staff has been highly engaged in supporting efforts to improve the lives of our customers. The healthier our neighborhoods are, the more successful we’ll be as a bank.”
Shivers chairs the MBC 24:1 Community Council. The council is comprised of local government officials, clergy, bank staff and business representatives dedicated to advancing Beyond Housing’s mission of stabilizing and improving neighborhoods. The initiatives name, 24:1, refers to the 24 municipalities that send students to the Normandy School District; Pagedale is one of those municipalities.
“Midwest BankCentre developed the most thoughtful approach in setting up the bank to succeed,” Krehmeyer said.
“This is an important step towards assuring a brighter economic future for Pagedale and the 24:1 community.”
Since 2001, MBC – which is headquartered in Lemay and operates five other area banking facilities in Clayton, WingHaven, Fenton, Oakville and Arnold – has consistently achieved the Bauer Financial 5-Star Superior financial rating, the highest ranking for strength and stability awarded by Bauer Financial.
