Consolidated Bank & Trust Co., in Richmond, Va., overcame Jim Crow segregation, two World Wars, depressions and economic upheavals since Maggie L. Walker founded it 101 years ago. But the nation’s oldest black-owned bank could not overcome losses from a series of bad loans that left it a shrunken three-branch institution, struggling to compete against a wave of aggressive community banks.
After four years of striving to restore financial health to the bank, the six-member board led by retired surgeon Walton M. Belle last week agreed to give up control and accept a $2.5 million buyout offer.
The purchase deal came from the Abigail Adams National Bancorp, a prosperous white-owned banking holding company that operates the seven-branch Adams National Bank in Washington.