Investors in America Award
ShoreBank Corporation was the United States’ first and leading development-oriented bank holding company. It inspired a national movement for community development financial institutions and directly shaped federal investment legislation and urban policy decisions that apply today. As co-founder, Ron Grzywinski’s innovative work in requiring banks to meet the credit needs of their local communities became a catalyst of social change and renewal in America. In 1973, Grzywinski and three colleagues decided to pursue their passion for community activism to advance economic opportunity by simultaneously combining banking activities with other incorporated economic development initiatives. They sought to redefine current banking practices by providing capital, credit, and management assistance to minority-owned businesses and families, and to eliminate unfair redlining practices of
Grzywinski critically pointed out that access to credit is only one part to successful community development. His pioneering concept integrated non-bank for-profit and not-for-profit development corporations with the power of bank lending to finance and support local entrepreneurs and community organizations. This radical idea effectively used all of ShoreBank’s resources to bring about redevelopment within low-income and minority neighborhoods, and became a model for progressive banking then and now. Through his foresight, ShoreBank became a national model for social change by working with local decision makers who possess a deep understanding of the communities and markets in which they were active.banks and urban decay in Chicago.
He is globally recognized for his defining leadership and as an expert on the role of regulated financial institutions in local economic development. Starting in 1983, with the formation of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, ShoreBank Corporation played a leading investment and support role for local development banks in Asia, Africa, and the former Soviet Union.
Although ShoreBank never played an active role in public policy debates, Grzywinski was the only commercial banker to testify in favor of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 and ShoreBank’s work with Governor Clinton in Arkansas subsequently inspired the introduction of the national Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) legislation. His unprecedented career, creativity, and deep commitment to more democratized access to financial and management resources have had deep and significant social impacts as they shaped current financial policies and directly improved the lives of millions of people around the world.