What started as a former bank executive’s dream to work with churches and to modernize the African American banking world ended in disappointment.
BankBlackwell, a would-be black online bank that was the brainchild of former OneUnited Bank executive James Mundy, folded in August before it ever took its first deposit or loan application. The fledgling operation, says Mundy, was only days from doing business.
That was a few days too late to meet a federal regulatory deadline that already had been extended several times in the last year to give Mundy and his team more time to piece together financing for the venture.
Mundy needed to raise $16.5 million through an offering of common stock. BankBlackwell offered 1.6 million shares at $10 each and got commitments from potential shareholders for more than that, he says. However, the majority shareholder — whom Mundy won’t name — failed to pay for his shares.