Dear Friends of Southern,
In recent weeks, Southern Bancorp’s work has been featured in national publications, including the Christian Science Monitor, which tackles the issue of payday lending and our work to develop payday loan alternatives; American Banker, in which Southern joins other CDFI leaders supporting regulatory relief for community development banks; and a report from the New Economy Working Group that focuses on the need to move from a Wall Street-based banking system to one that focuses on Main Street and accountability to local communities.
We’re proud to share these stories of our ongoing efforts to create change through economic opportunity in rural and underserved communities. I hope you’ll take the time to read more about our work and reach out if you’d like to join us in helping families and communities create stronger financial futures.
Sincerely,
Nathan Pittman
Director of Communications
Southern Bancorp, Inc.
Clarksdale, Miss. — At a highway junction outside town, a trio of outsized blue guitars mounted on a telegraph pole face onto the fertile farmlands of the Mississippi Delta. In blues mythology, this crossroads is The Crossroads, where guitarist Robert Johnson traded his soul to the devil for musical genius. Today it’s a stoplight on Highway 61, a sun-baked strip of discount malls, gas stations, fast-food joints – and half dozen stores offering fast cash…
Emboldened by supportive comments from presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, community development banks are asking regulators for more leniency in areas such as disclosure fees and Bank Secrecy Act enforcement.
In 2008, Wall Street plunged the U.S. economy into the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Wall Street received a generous public bailout and quickly recovered. Main Street continues to languish. Politicians and pundits rarely inquire into the reasons for the disparity. Doing so would expose the reality that the United States is ruled as a plutocracy, not a democracy, and would focus citizen anger on the structure of the institutional system that gives Wall Street bankers their power.