Independent Banker - October 2021 - 67

How University Bank is
redressing redlining
Widespread housing discrimination made homeownership unattainable for Black Americans for
generations. To address this, University Bank and a nonprofit launched a new mortgage program,
creating a national model for homeownership counseling in the process. By William Atkinson
tephen Lange Ranzini's father
taught him about the importance
of fighting for positive change.
Ranzini describes his father, who was
first an attorney and later a judge, as
a " pioneering civil rights advocate. "
During his career, Joseph Ranzini
helped to break down legal barriers
for Black people, Jewish people,
immigrants and Catholics in central
New Jersey, where Ranzini grew up.
It's a lesson Ranzini, now president
and CEO of $701 million-asset
University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich.,
has taken to heart in his work as a
community banker.
S
" Because the banks were not lending to
the Black community on the south side
of Ypsilanti, home prices were artificially
depressed, and a large portion of the citizens
of the city could not become homeowners. "
-STEPHEN LANGE RANZINI, UNIVERSITY BANK
" Over my 33-year community
banking career, I have been privileged
to utilize my position as CEO to be
a strong and consistent advocate to
advance women and minorities, "
Ranzini says. He has devoted much
of his professional and personal time
to addressing a wide range of DEI
(diversity, equity, and inclusion)
issues, and one of his focuses has
been on redlining in Ypsilanti, a city
outside of Ann Arbor. Redlining is
the systematic denial of services,
traditionally mortgages, to residents
of specific communities based on race
or other characteristics.
Earned recognition
Ranzini and University Bank's work
was recently recognized by Crain's
Detroit Business Crain's 2021 Notable
Executives in DEI.
Name:
University Bank
Assets:
$701 million
Location:
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Alma Wheeler Smith, a former
Michigan state senator and state
representative, sums up why
Ranzini won the award: " Stephen
was forward-looking, tackling
the poverty-ensuring legacy of
redlining in Ypsilanti [Mich.],
creating religious-compliant no
interest-loan programs for Muslim
borrowers and putting women and
minorities on the bank's board
before demands for racial and gender
equity drove other banks to introduce
those changes. "
When Ranzini first moved to
Ann Arbor, he met with community
leaders to get their take on the area's
unmet banking needs. In one such
meeting, John Barfield, a pioneering
Ypsilanti businessman who passed
away in 2018, shared his experience
as the town's first Black person to get
a mortgage, in the early 1960s.
While redlining is illegal today, its
legacy is still felt in Ypsilanti and in
many communities across the country.
For example, the town's housing
stock is largely rentals, continuing a
history of a lack of homeownership
and multigenerational wealth among
Black people.
" The household wealth of [Black
people] in Ypsilanti is materially
lower than that of whites, " Ranzini
says, " because they have not yet
had time to catch up, since the
independentbanker.org Q 67

http://www.independentbanker.org

Independent Banker - October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - October 2021