How Your Savings Can Help Support the Financially Vulnerable: Our partnership with Ponce Bank

Ponce Bank was founded in the Bronx in 1960 to support underserved immigrant and minority communities. Raisin chose to partner with Ponce Bank to bring high-yield savings products to our savers from a bank that encourages minority financial empowerment and celebrates diversity-focused initiatives.

Here's why we think you should consider Ponce Bank – and how by doing so you’re also supporting their community-focused mission to help financially-vulnerable populations.

Ponce Bank was founded in 1960 after many financial institutions fled the Bronx, which was perceived as a community in decline. The founders’ mission, unchanged today, is to help low-income and minority customers, as well as local small businesses. According to CEO Carlos Naudon, “A rising tide lifts all boats”. By investing in and serving these traditionally underbanked individuals and businesses, Ponce Bank improves the communities around them.

This means minority individuals make up more than 50% of the board or voting shareholders. Ponce Bank has 13 physical locations, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx in New York City and one branch in Union City, New Jersey. Most of these branches are managed by Latinx and minority team members who mirror the communities they serve.

In 2019 Ponce Bank’s not-for-profit entity, The Ponce de Leon Foundation, donated almost $500,000 to organizations that help their surrounding neighborhoods. These included non-profits supporting affordable housing, economic development, and programs for youths and seniors.

Most banks offer traditional savings accounts with low interest rates. In fact, the current national average interest rate for a savings account is 0.05%. Ponce Bank offers higher-yield savings accounts than most. Although rates change frequently, today Ponce Bank offers 0.50% APY on its high-yield savings accounts through the Save Better platform.

Here’s how much of a difference a high-yield savings account makes. If you have $5,000 in a traditional savings account with 0.05% APY, you’ll earn $2.50 in interest over the first year and $5 in interest after two years.

If you keep that $5,000 in a high-yield savings account at Ponce Bank, you’ll earn $25 in interest after one year and $50 after two years. That’s 10 times the amount you’d receive with a traditional savings account.

Ponce Bank is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), meaning that it focuses on low-income and underserved populations. A bank earns CDFI status by placing over 80% of its loans in these often neglected communities and during 2019 Ponce Bank loaned over 84% of its funding to these communities in dire need.

Investing in low and moderate income communities is always important, but especially so during the Covid-19 pandemic. Low-income individuals have been hit especially hard by the recession, and using a CDFI like Ponce Bank with community-focused service initiatives can help those affected recover faster.

Ponce Bank is only one of 38 banks in the country to be both a CDFI and an MDI and proudly serves customers and small businesses that might be rejected or neglected by larger organizations.

Ponce Bank is FDIC insured, so customers can feel secure about choosing their savings offers exclusive offered by Raisin.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) protects consumers if their bank shuts down, and was created in response to the Great Depression, when thousands of banks failed, and customers lost their life savings.

When you choose a savings product from an FDIC-insured bank, your money – up to $250,000 will be safe – no matter what happens to the economy or the bank.

If you want to supercharge your savings and support your local community, click here to start saving with Ponce Bank today.