CHICAGO–The remnants of a failed bank here are being acquired by North Carolina-based Self Help FCU.
The nearly $2-billion Self Help is acquiring Seaway Bank from Dallas-based State Bank of Texas, which acquired the bank in late January from the FDIC, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. Until it was conserved, Seaway had been Chicago’s largest black-owned bank.
Self Help FCU, which also operates in California and Florida in addition to its home state, already has a presence in Chicago, having acquired the deposits of Chicago-based Second Federal Savings after it failed in 2013.
Under terms of the agreement, State Bank of Texas will continue to hold and manage Seaway's existing loans and will operate the foreign-exchange concessions at O'Hare and Midway airports. The credit union will take over other retail operations and “could become an important provider of financing in South Side neighborhoods afflicted by joblessness, violence and population decline,” Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
State Bank of Texas is expert mainly in lending to hotel operators, often Indian-Americans as also is the family that owns the Texas bank, Crain’s said.
"It plays to everybody's strengths," Sushil Patel, president of State Bank of Texas told the publication. "The result is a win for the community, Self-Help, the (National Credit Union Adminstration) and State Bank of Texas."
Self Help CEO Martin Eakes was quoted by Crain’s Chicago Business as saying he was intent on expanding into Chicago's South Side even before Seaway's failure.