Bank officials, political leaders and members of the community celebrated the grand opening of Urban Partnership Bank’s new micro-branch earlier this month, as reported by our partners at the Austin Weekly News.
The new location at 5253 W. Madison St. features a state-of-the-art facility and includes services offered by larger banks, such as online banking and 24-hour ATMs.
Austin Weekly News reporter La Risa Lynch wrote the bank will have a community focus, like ShoreBank, the once-prominent community institution that was seized by federal regulators last year. Urban Partnership took over the failed bank’s assets but aims to continue its legacy while offering more.
The new facility provides retail banking and personal account services, including checking, savings and retirement accounts.
“All of those services make the community viable, so that is why we want to be full service. We have to understand what goes on in the communities,” Daryl Newell, director of consumer banking told Lynch.
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Will this new bank operate like many other banks, charging exorbitant fees for ATM transactions, verifying account balances, etc.? I used to bank with Austin Bank before they cashed several grant checks and charged me without notification that fees would be incurred as a result of my transactions. Each check would have been considered petty cash and were in small denominations, but they still charged me $5.00 per for eight checks.
If this is truly a community-oriented, focused financial instution, they will create variable financing programs and other services to help patrons to implement small businesses, low-interest home improvement loans, etc.