- Darrin Williams, CEO of Arkansas-based Southern Bancorp, has demonstrated that community development financial institutions can reduce systemic racism in access to banking.
- Successful recommendation – Williams recently gained acclaim for promoting CDFIs as a quick way to distribute coronavirus bailout funds to rural businesses.
- In mostly-black rural areas that banks like Southern serve, poor residents who can’t afford bank account maintenance fees rely heavily on expensive payday lenders and check-cashers.
- Willams has introduced low-cost financial products that eliminate the financial tax of poverty.
