local investment

How To Find a Local Bank: Tips & Tricks

By: Solari

 

A. Identify Local Banks

1. Get the list of the banks and credit unions in your area from your local Yellow Pages. Delete names that you know to be large banks, including names on the Solari US Banking Tapeworm 20 List.

2. Visit your local Chamber of Commerce and ask them for a list of all banks in your area -- ask them to identify which only operate locally and/or regionally and which are owned locally or regionally, or, if credit unions, controlled locally.

A local bank is a bank that operates within your local area and is primarily owned or controlled by people who live within or near your local area.

A regional bank is one that operates in your state and a few other states and is owned and/or controlled by people based in those states.

Sometimes it takes a village to fund a company.

Originally posted on CNNmoney.com by Helaine Olen

September 9, 2009

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (Fortune Small Business) -- John Halko was halfway through renovating an expanded space for Comfort, his mostly organic eatery in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., when the credit crisis hit. His source of funding -- a home-equity line -- ran out, so he applied for a loan at a local bank. He was turned down.

Americans want to invest locally: here’s how.

By Michael Shuman     Posted July 9, 2009.
The article originally appeared in YES! Magazine as a part of The New Economy issue.

This article originally appeared as part of The New Economy, the Summer 2009 issue of Yes! Magazine.



Social activist and local living economies advocate shares her investment secrets

I have always felt uneasy about the stock market. As a longtime organizer and a local restaurant founder and owner, I put nearly all of my money, time, and energy into my local community, rather than into global corporate investments.

The idea of investing in our local communities, including putting cash into local businesses, is really spreading. The New York Times Year In Ideas issue includes what they call "Locavesting," or focusing capital investments on locally owned companies via local exchanges. Here's the full text of the article from Amy Cortese as found on their web site: