Check/Spring Bank Coming Soon To Harlem

CheckSpring Bank has cut the ribbon on its first branch in the middle of the financial crisis in the Bronx. Despite the inauspicious timing, the bank’s efforts to persuade urban New Yorkers to step up their financial dealings from check-cashing stores to a full-service bank have paid off. In the past three years, CheckSpring has doubled the number of its retail customers to 4,000 and septupled the ranks of its business customers to 245.

… (we will) continue to lure customers with discount check-cashing services and by forming partnerships with city agencies and local financial literacy groups, which have brought in two out of five of its customers in the Bronx.

Now the bank will try for a similar success at a branch it plans to open on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, another underserved banking market. There, more than a third of households manage their finances without a bank account, compared with 13% of families citywide. Even though CheckSpring will be renamed Spring Bank by its Harlem debut, it will continue to lure customers with discount check-cashing services and by forming partnerships with city agencies and local financial literacy groups, which have brought in two out of five of its customers in the Bronx.

In Harlem, the bank also hopes to benefit from the rising number of small businesses in the area. “We’re excited for more businesses to find out about us,” said Vice President Brian Blake. “A bank survives by making loans.”

Crain’s New York Business

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