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Newsmakers: Only Black-owned bank in Texas using partnerships to thrive - YouTube
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from kprc 2 this is houston newsmakers
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with cambrell marshall well it's
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a bet that you probably have not seen a
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lot of unity national bank branches
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around and there's good reason for that
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there are only two in texas both in the
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houston region and one in atlanta
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it is the only black-owned bank in texas
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and one of fewer than three dozen in the
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united states and the unity
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national story is certainly one worth
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telling and who better to tell that
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story than the president and
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ceo of unity national laura vignan thank
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you
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for joining me this morning lori talk
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about the unique place the black-owned
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business plays within the community
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oh my goodness um black-owned businesses
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and in particular an institution like
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unity bank that is a black business
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you know we have been a staple in this
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community or in illinois communities for
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many many years
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um and so when there's a lack of
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resources or when there's
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um you know the removal of
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communities or communities that are
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usually not
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um as a franchise businesses are leaving
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it really
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is incumbent upon the businesses who are
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left behind to continue serving
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unity has been in the historic third
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ward
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for almost 58 years now and
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we have been a staple we are supporting
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the businesses that are surrounding it
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and we're also
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wanting to make sure that those
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businesses that have the left in the
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past are coming back and are able to
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access capital so um it's important
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it's important and it's critical that we
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remain and that we stay viable
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and the partnerships are playing a big
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role in everything it seems these days
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and partnerships are certainly what is
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helping your organization
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i've been reading about the number of
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other banks that are investing
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in unity as a partnership in the
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community talk a little bit about some
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of the
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investment dollars have been coming in
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and how you've been able to benefit from
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that
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yeah you know one of the challenges
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unity has had in the past is that
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because of its
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size and inability to raise capital
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it has hindered our ability to really
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bring on products and services that can
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be very meaningful to our customers
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and so when you have organizations in
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large institutions
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like wells and b of a
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and city who have made an amigy who have
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made
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capital investments in our institution
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it provides us with the
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the money that we need in order to
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deliver
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new products and services which we're in
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the process of putting together to
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launch
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and we're able to provide more loans um
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and and credit to individuals who need
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it more
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and when a bank like unity is able to
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provide that especially in a community
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that we're
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missions driven to serve it only means
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we can do more
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there's only um opportunities to do more
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and so we're hoping that people will be
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able to see
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that see that we're available to do that
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and that they'll take advantage of the
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opportunity as it presents itself
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and you and you were able to and you
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were able to make a big impact when it
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came time for the pp
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uh loans and the loans during the
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pandemic talk about that
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yeah you know last year it was such an
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unusual year on so many different levels
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and you know to have a pandemic impact
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our small businesses in in the way that
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it did it was incumbent upon us to take
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advantage of
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you know government-sponsored sba us
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treasury sponsor programs that were
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available and i'm so glad that we did
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so we were hands-on on the ground on
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providing the loans to our small
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businesses and what we
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found out which was quite interesting is
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that you know
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a lot of the businesses you know had
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relationships with some of the larger
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institutions
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but the challenge is you know often you
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don't have a relationship with those
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institutions you do transactions with
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them but it's not a relationship
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and at unity you have a relationship you
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can walk in you can call us
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you can talk to someone who can
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literally provide you with the hand
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holding that you need it
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and and we were just excited that we
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were able to not only
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um we introduce ourselves to a lot of
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small business
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businesses in the community but we were
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able to serve nearly 500 businesses
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you know as a result of the ppp program
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and i will add we are still promoting
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the program we are still providing
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um the loans to our small businesses and
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i encourage them to please call us if
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you're
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if you're still interested in you need
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the support
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so in short bit of time we have left
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what's your hope for the
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future for unity how much growth do you
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think you're going to have in the next
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year
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oh my goodness you know when i came on
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board
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um the bank was at an asset size of 106
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million dollars we have literally grown
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to nearly 187 million
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um in the last year and we are poised to
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grow even further
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we have the capital that we need in
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order to be able to provide more online
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banking products
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which i'm really excited about being
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able um that's coming very soon and
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hopefully by the summer
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early summer people will be able to see
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that we have online banking services to
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serve them more
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and we have capital we understand the
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need is great for our small businesses
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to be able to access
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capital and unity bank understands our
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customers probably better than most
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and we're here to serve well i'm looking
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forward to the good juicy stuff coming
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up this summer i promise you'll come
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back and talk about that
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all right good deal laura vignall thank
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you so much for what you do and what the
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bank does for the community
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uh we thank you for being here this
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morning good luck in your future
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endeavors
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thank you kimbrough take care
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