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ShoreBank is the oldest and largest community development bank, founded and headquartered in Chicago. It had $2.3 billion in assets as of March 31, 2010.

ShoreBank has branches in Chicago’s South and West sides, Cleveland, and Detroit. Between 2000 and 2006, ShoreBank issued nearly $900 million in loans to citizens in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. ShoreBank and its affiliated companies have projects in 30 countries.

ShoreBank incorporated environmental conservation into its mission during the 1990's, helping develop a triple-bottom line approach to banking—a system equally prioritizing profits, impact on people, and the impact of a project on the environment.

ShoreBank accepts mission-based deposits from across the country through its Development Deposits program, launched in 1982, and its online savings account ShoreBank Direct, launched in 2007.

Although mission-based, the bank's financial performance regularly matches or exceeds that of its peer banks.

Origin
In 1973 the South Shore Bank attempted to relocate from 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard in the economically declining South Shore to the suburban Loop. At the time, one third of all apartment buildings in South Shore were tax-delinquent and in danger of abandonment by landlords. Angered by the bank's racist lending practices, community banker-activists Milton Davis, James Fletcher, Mary Houghton, and Ron Grzywinski purchased the bank after successfully petitioning the federal Comptroller of the Currency to stop the move. Urban planner Stanley Hallett was a founding board member and was vice president of the bank's holding company its first five years.

In 2000 the South Shore Bank was officially renamed ShoreBank.



Structure
ShoreBank Corporation is the holding company for ShoreBank. Its other subsidiaries provide equity investing, consulting, and environmental banking services:


 * ShoreBank Pacific in Oregon and Washington state
 * ShoreBank International, with offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and London
 * ShoreCap Management

ShoreBank established a number of affiliated nonprofits to provide related financing, technical assistance, and consulting services:


 * Center for Financial Services Innovation
 * National Community Investment Fund (NCIF)
 * Northern Initiatives, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
 * ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia in Oregon and Washington state
 * ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland
 * ShoreBank Enterprise Detroit
 * ShoreBank Neighborhood Institute
 * ShoreCap Exchange

Recognition
ShoreBank, its cofounders, and its affiliates have received numerous awards and honors, including from the magazines Fast Company, Business Ethics, and U.S. News & World Report , University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, the Independent Community Bankers of America , Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago , the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and Governor Ted Kulongoski of Oregon.



Former President and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton is a prominent supporter of the bank. In 1985, ShoreBank worked closely with Clinton to set up the Southern Development Bancorporation, a community development bank serving rural Arkansans. Clinton described ShoreBank as "the most important bank in America" and credited ShoreBank’s success with inspiring a movement of community development financial institutions (CDFI’s).

Under a grant from the Ford Foundation in the 1980's, ShoreBank worked with Muhammad Yunus to help him incorporate Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.