Why Native American Banking Matters
Native American banks and credit unions play a vital role in addressing generations of economic exclusion and underbanking in Native communities. By supporting housing, small business lending, and financial access, these institutions help strengthen economic opportunity and preserve community self-determination.
How Better Banking Fits Into Ethical Consumerism
Ethical consumerism can feel impossible in today’s economy, but where you bank still matters. Learn how Better Banking helps turn your deposits into community investment and positive economic change.
Why you should be banking with Texas Bank Financial
Texas Bank Financial is a community-focused bank serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area with free checking accounts, modern mobile banking tools, and significant mortgage lending to low- and moderate-income households. For customers looking to move away from mega banks, it offers a more local and community-minded banking option in North Texas.
Why You Should Be Banking With HomeBank Texas
HomeBank Texas is a community-focused bank serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area through affordable housing loans, small business financing, and relationship-based banking. Originally founded in Seagoville, Texas, the bank continues to combine small-town banking values with impactful community development lending across North Texas.
Why You Should Be Banking With Cattleman’s Bank
Cattleman’s Bank is a community-focused bank serving southwestern Oklahoma and Dallas through exceptional small business and agricultural lending. Originally founded in rural Oklahoma, the bank continues to invest heavily in local economies through small farm loans, business financing, and community-focused banking services.
Why You Should Be Banking With Equitable Bank
Equitable Bank is a Nebraska community bank combining small-town relationship banking with highly effective community development lending in Omaha and beyond. Through strong small business, agricultural, and housing lending, the bank helps support local economies across both rural and urban communities in Nebraska.
Why You Should Be Banking With Naveo Credit Union
First Federal Savings and Loan Association is a tiny but impactful local bank serving Morehead, Kentucky through affordable housing loans, small business lending, and community-focused banking. With a strong commitment to keeping deposits invested locally, the institution demonstrates how small hometown banks can play a major role in supporting rural economic development.
Why You Should Be Banking With First Federal Savings and Loan Assoc.
First Federal Savings and Loan Association is a tiny but impactful local bank serving Morehead, Kentucky through affordable housing loans, small business lending, and community-focused banking. With a strong commitment to keeping deposits invested locally, the institution demonstrates how small hometown banks can play a major role in supporting rural economic development.
Why You Should Be Banking With Mission National Bank
Mission National Bank is a San Francisco-based CDFI and Minority Depository Institution focused on expanding access to banking services, affordable housing loans, and small business lending in underserved communities. By serving primarily first- and second-generation immigrants, the bank helps bring capital and financial opportunity to neighborhoods often overlooked by larger financial institutions.
Why Transparency in Banking Matters for Community Development and Ethical Lending
Transparency in banking helps consumers understand how financial institutions use their deposits and whether banks are truly investing in underserved communities. As regulatory changes reduce reporting requirements for housing lending data, it becomes more difficult to evaluate which banks prioritize affordable housing, community development, and equitable lending practices.
Why You Should Be Banking With Hanover Bank
Hanover Bank is a growing New York community bank investing heavily in affordable housing and community development lending across NYC neighborhoods. With a strong focus on low- and moderate-income housing loans and personalized banking services, the bank is helping expand access to capital in communities across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Long Island.
Why You Should Be Banking With Workmen’s Circle Credit Union
Workmen’s Circle Credit Union is a small, community-focused credit union in Savannah, Georgia, with an exceptional commitment to small business lending. Originally founded to provide fair loans to Jewish immigrants excluded from traditional banking, the credit union continues to support local economic growth through accessible financial services and relationship-based lending.
Why You Should Be Banking With Cottonport Bank
Cottonport Bank is a Louisiana-based CDFI providing affordable housing loans, small business financing, and essential banking services to underserved rural communities. With branches in small towns often overlooked by larger financial institutions, the bank plays an important role in expanding economic opportunity across southeast Louisiana.
Why You Should Be Banking With First State Bank of the Southeast
First State Bank of the Southeast is a community-focused Kentucky bank serving Appalachian communities through affordable housing loans, small business financing, and local investment. With more than a century of history in southeastern Kentucky, the bank helps expand economic opportunity and strengthen rural communities often overlooked by larger financial institutions.
What to Ask When Researching a Better Banking Option
Not all banks that market themselves as community-focused are equally effective at supporting local economies and underserved communities. This guide explains the key questions to ask when researching a bank or credit union, including how much they lend to small businesses and affordable housing, how transparent they are about their practices, and whether their leadership reflects the communities they serve.
How Better Banking Can Support Climate Action and Environmental Justice
The banks we choose can have a major impact on climate change and environmental justice. While mega banks continue financing fossil fuel industries and high-emission corporations, community banks and mission-driven financial institutions often invest more heavily in local economies, small businesses, and sustainable community development. Moving your money to a Better Banking Option can be one meaningful way to support climate action and economic justice at the same time.
Why You Should Be Banking With National Cooperative Bank
National Cooperative Bank is a mission-driven financial institution focused on funding cooperatives, community organizations, and affordable housing projects across the United States. Through lending to food co-ops, housing cooperatives, credit unions, and other member-owned organizations, the bank helps expand economic opportunity in underserved communities nationwide.
Why You Should Be Banking With Southern Bancorp Bank
Southern Bancorp is one of the largest community development financial institutions in the United States, serving underbanked rural communities across Arkansas and Mississippi. Through affordable housing loans, small business financing, agricultural lending, and financial education, the bank helps expand economic opportunity in areas often overlooked by traditional banking institutions.
Understanding the Different Types of Financial Institutions
Financial institutions do far more than hold checking accounts. From traditional banks and credit unions to community development loan funds and investment firms, each type of institution plays a unique role in lending, investing, and supporting local economies. Understanding how these organizations operate can help consumers make more informed and socially responsible financial decisions.
Why You Should Be Banking With Seamen’s Bank
Seamen’s Bank is a community-focused Cape Cod bank supporting year-round residents through affordable housing loans, small business financing, and local community investment. Serving Provincetown and surrounding resort towns since 1852, the bank helps preserve economic opportunity and community stability in one of Massachusetts’ most unique coastal regions.