Financial Tips: OneUnited Bank mission is to provide affordable financial services in urban communities nationwide.

Published Dec 2, 2024, 10:00 AM

Money Making Conversations Master Class

Hi, this is Rushion McDonald. Welcome to the podcast world of Money Making Conversations Master Class. I interview profits and nonprofits to learn the 
1,428 clip(s)

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Kevin Cohee. 

He is the owner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OneUnited Bank, the largest Black owned bank and the first Black owned internet bank in America. In the aftermath of the protest against police brutality in 2016, Mr. Cohee created and spearheaded the Bank Black movement resulting in Black people transferring tens of millions of dollars into Black owned banks as a form of social protest. Through Mr. Cohee’s visionary leadership, OneUnited Bank has exceeded industry averages year after year regarding asset growth and profitability. From 1996 to the present, OneUnited assets have grown from $56 million to over $650 million. The Bank has consistently been profitable and achieved a compound growth rate on its common equity of over 35%. A successful business executive and entrepreneur for almost 20 years, Mr. Cohee founded a consulting firm in 1979 specializing in acquisition of radio and television stations by minorities. After obtaining his JD/MBA in 1985, Mr. Cohee became an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, Inc.

Company Description *    
OneUnited Bank is the premier bank for urban communities, the largest Black-owned bank, the first Black internet bank and a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Its mission is to provide affordable financial services to support economic development in urban communities and maintain superior financial performance to maximize shareholder value. OneUnited is an FDIC insured bank and an equal housing lender.

He is the CEO of OneUnited Bank, America’s largest Black-owned bank. Discover how OneUnited is transforming financial access through artificial intelligence technology and innovation, offering tools to help underserved communities build wealth and financial literacy. Cohee shares powerful insights on breaking down barriers in banking, leveraging technology for financial empowerment, and creating opportunities for a brighter economic future. Tune in to learn how you can take control of your financial journey with resources tailored to uplift and empower!

#STRAW

#BEST

#SHMS

Welcome to the show. I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running their companies, and speak with nod profits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rushan McDonald, our host of weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own. I'm here to help you reach your American dream. If you want to be a guest on my show, please visit Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the be a Guest button.

My next guest.

He's the owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of One United Bank, the largest black owned bank and the first black owned internet bank in America. The bank has consistently been profitable and achieved a compound growth rate on this common equity of over thirty five percent. Please welcome to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Kevin coohe how you doing.

Kevin, great man? Thanks for having me.

First of all, you know when I heard an opportunity to being able to interview you. We met way back when I was managing Steve Harvey and the Los Angeles and between two thousand and two thousand and five, I was aware of the United Bank brand, and as we've grown over the years, Talker, tell us about that journey, because it's something you launched in nineteen ninety six and then in twenty sixteen, it.

Kind of like jumped off.

Now we know for a fact that in the brown and black communities banks don't exist.

Tell me your story, yes, okay, Well my story is really a story.

Of Black America.

The concept of creating a national black on bank is not something that I created. Far greater men than me came up with this idea of going all the way back to slavery, people like Booker T. Wasshington as an example, WB du Bois. As different as they were as leaders, they both talked about the importance of a national Black on bank. No less than Martin Luther King in his I Have a Dream speech, talked about the importance of a national Black on bank. These leaders recognized and believed that one of the very important elements of successfully integrating Black Americans into a capitalistic society was to have an institution that had access to the payment system that can serve this central role of what they would call garnering the economic spending power of both Black America and its allies and then re channeling those resources, those economic resources into our communities to help us grow. So this, this concept, this mission literally has existed since slavery. We're just a group of people who who were chosen, if you will, to execute this mission of creating a national black owned bank. The original concept of the bank was to buy up all the small black owed banks around the country and pull them together and create one United bank. So we bought a bank in Boston, bought a bank in Miami, bought two banks in Los Angeles, and we're four acquisitions deep into what an investment banker would call a roll up. And then we had this epiphany, or maybe this epiphany had at us, depending on how you want to think about it. But we looked up and said, oh man, this thing called technology is going to completely change financial services as we know it. Why these things, okay, phones, so cell phone, computers, period. In other words, starting with the way people want to receive their financial services these days. They don't want to drive down the street and around the corner and stand in line, no matter how good you don't not save. They have an expectation of getting all their financial information right now, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day, and they expect to be able to spend money all across the world and get it back for free anywhere in the United States. So that's one part of it, how banking services are delivered, in people's expectation, how they get them. And then the second thing is this thing called technology, whether it's that aggregation where it's artificial intelligence, have allowed for the creation of a whole new generation of banking products that are completely different than anything that has existed previously. For example, what we're doing is we're moving from what they call utilitarian banking products, something like a checking account as an example. It's a utilitarian product. And what that does is it facilitation. You spend the money by writing checks. But you take like one United Banks lead product, which is called wise one. What wise one does is it users data aggregation technology to pull together all of a person's financial information, no matter where it is, not just what's in the bank, but all their financial information.

So for the first.

Time, many people actually understand on a real time basis where they are, what their assets are, what their liabilities are, what their network they're like there is, what the revenues are, what their spenses are, so what the surplus and definity that the case may be. And most importantly, we've gamified them understanding how the cash loans, so in other words, when is the money coming in, when is the money going out, and what that means. And so if you think about what I just described to you, for the first time people have the ability to actually understand where they are. Then our artificial intelligence technology takes that information. And by the way, we've been working on AI for over a decade, right okay, takes that You're not just coming.

To the party right now, you've been ahead of the party.

Man. We try to say we are at the party.

Come on, Garrett, tell the truth. One United Bank.

There you go.

So so we we you know, a lot of times people don't think about black owned companies as participating in technologies like artificial intelligence. We fully implemented our official intelligence and to vote our operation and our products.

But just to finish this point quickly, so.

What we used AI to do is to take people's information and to help them make their decisions. So that's really the key to it. So you know, as you know, as you talked about, we live in a society that is challenged from a financial literacy standpoint. Ninety percent of our population is not financially literate unfortunately. I mean, we know why. We don't teach financial literacy in schools, so K through twelve we don't teach financial literacy. So it'd be like if we didn't teach reading. If we didn't teach reading, well, guess what, we have a bunch of people who can't read. Instand which we have most of our population is not capable of making financially literate decisions. The good news, technology, in particularly artificial intelligence, creates the opportunity to now for anybody to get to effectively make the decisions like they were an expert or a profession.

You brought up the concept from one day United Bank buying up black banks around the an't you the same format and no different than the Bank of America, no different than the World's Foggo or any of your competitors, not being a black bank. It's a trust factor, is a brand awareness factor. How do you break that battery? As one United Bank when you're trying to bring in customers and your new start or a new kid on the block.

Well, you're starting with you have. Okay, what we like to say those banks that you mentioned, uh, Chase and Wells Fargo and all them, what we say is we're fdic ensued commercial bank like them. The only difference is we're smarter and we have better technology.

There you go.

Other than that, they just like us. We're just smarter than so and so and so forth. So our products start with our products. And one of the reasons we have really good relationships with banks, and banks love One United Bank is because they know they can't do the kind of things we can do. For exam, one of our lead products is called cass Please. Now, what cash Please does is for those situations where where some kind of the average American only has four hundred dollars in emergency savings. Right, Okay, So let's start with that. So let's say something happens, you're driving your truck to work, you hit a pothole. Bang, you got an eight hundred and fifty dollars bills in here.

You need this truck to get to work. So you you need what what do you need?

You need an emergency small balance short term loan at affordable prices. In other words, you don't you need to be able to get your truck fixed without being goalsed and taken in by some kind of financial trap. Well, one United Bate can deliver that loan on a nationwide basis and uses alternative credit criterion other than just these these these credit bureaus and stuff, which are dated technology. Right, So if base aren't build to solve the kind of problems that people have, what do I mean a people problem? You stuck in check systems? You need a second chance to get a check in account. That's the one United Bate product. You messed up your credit things having the people, particularly when you have low amounts of resources, so you need to rebuild your credit.

That's the one United Bank product.

You need to build emergency savings, perhaps on a collaborative basis with somebody like your employer, which is one of our big areas expertise to help you build savings accounts. So what I'm saying to you is we have completely different financial products than mainstream base and we have the products that people actually need to function in day to day's society. Like I just told you about a product, a black owned business created a product that utilizes artificial intelligence to help people, and we're designed in particularly for black people to make better financial.

Is i'ma tell you something. You're fired up now.

I like that, Carvin, because you you get frustrated like me and this I wouldn't say the word frustrated, but it's about the information because of the fact that Blacks are always viewed as being behind the curve on technology, being hind the curve on financial literacy. You said, Rashaan, we got the model. We're winning with one United Bank. Now, because you go to any black community and those check cashing places are still dominant.

How can you help.

The black community with one United Bank to avoid those outrageous fees and how can they do banking with one United Bank?

You go, you go to one United dot com. It's that O N E U N.

I T E any anywhere you can be down.

D C d C Detroit, Philadelphia, Boise, Idaho, which, by the way, we have a lot of customersis for reasons. L Paso, Texas, Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, GOP. It doesn't matter. There you are and I'll give you just just because here again, you know, you know, hopefully it doesn't seem like frustration. But but we want people to understand you you don't have to go to these check cashers and get ripped off. You just go to my United but dot com we are set up to be able to accommodate these types of situations and so and so and so here again.

Let me ask you this.

Let me ask you this, Kevin, because I don't want to put the word frustration in it, but you know you're trying to get the worried out. You have something available that people are not using because they're not aware of the brand that you're offering at one United one United Bank. Now, how does this as an individual who's been doing this way going to these high check cashing places, you know, got a buzz to get in, You get in, they treat you like a criminal even though they cash in your check. How does one in that community deposit their money using one United Bank even though they're not going into a bank or check cash your location. I'm just trying to simplify so people can understand how your technology works.

Okay, well, why not start by asking you a question? Yes, Sir, if I said to you, Rashid, if you had to guess what bank in the United States has the largest number of surcharged free at ms, what bank would you get? Now before you before you answer that, let's just say you don't CEO right right right, right, right, right, right right.

And it's just a good looking black guy.

Right, we're beautiful teeth. We're beautiful teeth. I want to say one year, Nited Bank, Sir, we have the.

Largest number joint free ATMs from any bank. Now it's because of the network we we have built. So we're tied into a number of institutions like you can use any your one United Bank customer, you can use like city based ATMs, you can use JP Morgan's ATMs, as well as the whole host of of everything from dollar store type type situations to too many retailers. Because we we created collaborations. See where we have created the bank.

Of the future.

Right, So, so the banking the bank is built on collaborations, it's built on technology, and and so and so it's in the modern day world. Here again, banking was this thing we grew up with which was based before technology. So it was physical. You have a physical facility, you place physical bills into the thing, you go sit there and you talk to the tellers and all of that. Well, technology technology like so many things, and it's one of the more important things for us as a people is to recognize how technology has changed business opportunity.

Look at you.

You communicating to the to the whole world rightly, and you certainly communicating to the whole United States. And this isn't about where Rashad is at this moment. Frankly, where Rashad is at this moment is not. What's important is the content right that you're providing and understanding how to distribute that contest on a widespread basis. Here again, the thing about what United Bank other things that makes it youth unique is one United Bank affects tens of millions of people.

I want to hear.

That's why you see it's.

It's it's The reason is it's an important institution in Black America is because of both its brand recognition, but it's reach.

It can reach anybody anywhere.

So when something happens like the George Floyd thing, you think he's inundated with phone calls because we got we're Black America's banks, So we have to sit there and hold people's hands, water, sit there and hold their hands through moments of crisis, that kind of thing, and so and so. So it's not just us having the problem using technology to create this new generation of products that meets people's knees. It's also our ability to communicate effective related to hundreds of millions of people to reach that.

Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald.

Well, you know it's important people here. What Kevin is trying to say, oh is saying. He's not trying, He's motivated to tell you how you can change your life through technology. That was one United Bank was at the forefront of that, at the forefront of AI. More importantly, what I wanted him to say, and he said it very accurately, is if you are in a community and you don't have a bank. You now have a bank, and it's called One United. That bank is available to you. Just go online. You can upload your checks, you can have an ATM car, you can have a debit card, you can have all these things that you may not have right now and start you on a path of building credit, building credibility with a bank, and also taking you to the next stage of life, which is equity. And I think that's one of the major reasons why I wanted One United. Like I said, he's a gentleman. I met when I was manager of Steve Harvey and Los Angeles way back in two thousand. So I'm very aware of the One United brand in the early stages because there was a business that he launched in nineteen ninety six, and it's a vision. It's a vision is tied to success. But the beauty of Kevin is that his legacy is tied to success. Your grandfather was tied to the original or the real Black Wall Street.

Correct, Oh, absolutely right, great great great, three greats and two grades were intricately involved in the creation of Black Wall Street. I mean here again, you know the connection accords because a lot of people, you know what kind of what you're getting at.

They say, well, why would black.

Wall Street be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Why would they be in New York or Philadelphia or some industrial city.

Well, the reason is is because that is one.

Of the only, if not the only, place where black people and Indians by the way, got the proverbia forty acres and a mule.

As you know, slavery ended.

It wasn't like white people were gonna say, oh, slavery ended, Hey, why don't we all sing Kumbai Yai and come together and live together and all that. They were just saying, you free. But then then then we were separated to different groups, and one of the groups was Oklahoma. One of the ideals of what to do with slaves in Indians was to send them to Oklahoma. That group of people then ultimately negotiated a deal with the United States government, which was that negotiation was led by my great great grandfather, that resulted in them getting forty acres, getting the proverbial forty acres at the mule. And at that point in a in a argarian society, that land was what you could feed yourself off your land. You could you could make some access, you can make some profits by selling your access goods that you grow on the land, and so so so think of it and land as being the center of wealth creation. And it's that wealth that allowed for the building of this of this of this area of this town we now called black Wall Street. That's why we could afford to have stores, can have Rashank could have a store.

If I got some land where.

I'm growing corn and then I grow, you know, more corn than I need to beat my family, then I can take it down the Russian store, and then Roshine can sul it to somebody else who is doing you know, who's in some other kind of business but needs the corn.

That's example.

So so you know, my family is really proud of that legacy of being able to communicate with the leaders of this country even back then and and and be able to form a bridge between Europeans, Native Americans and black people and facilitate this this thing.

That we now call black Ball Street.

Well, you know, I want to send this carrying a lot of people need to understand, Like you know, that's that old rumor that everybody got forty acres a mule. As soon as April on Lincoln was assassinated, the next president killed it.

They stopped it.

And so that's why forty acres Murro was not distributed to all African Americans time. And it was fortunate in Opahomer, his great great grandfather negotiated an opportunity because the opportunities was not being being made available and it was being denied once Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Now, when we move forward to today, you're doing your own version of forty acres and through technology, that technology, your cell phone, your laptop can create a lasting financial literacy of opportunity for individuals. They just got to be believe in it and also understand that your bank is ahead of the curve and providing it for everybody.

Correct, Kevin One United that that.

That's right and you're exact, and that that technology can allow for you to create unprecedented businesses.

See now everybody had you could, you could.

You don't even have to make the product anymore, right, you could you could get the product like like many you know, you hear about black people, business people who are billionaires. As an example, they may not be making the perfume or the clothing items they're selling. Most times they're not. They're getting them from one place, and then they're using their brands to sell them all over the world. So technology creates the opportunity to create businesses in ways that have never existed before. As I said, you don't even have to meet the product anymore. That's the marketing opportunity, that's the ability to take advantage and understand this new age's There's never been a better opportunity to build a substantial business enterprice than there is right now.

Absolutely, as we go through this process, Kevin, you're on my show and obviously on my show to tell.

Everybody about one United Bank.

Tell everybody about how I don't care where you live in this country. Like you said the morning Hour of Boise, Idaho, Miami, Florida, you can be a customer with one United Bank. Just go to one United dot com and follow the registration process. As you get the worried out, how can I help you sustain that consistency of people understanding the value and the banking opportunities for entrepreneurs, because I shore it's about small business owners, entrepreneurs, people are trying to change their careers, future homeowners. Talk to us about my listening audience and what value one United Bank will bring to them.

Well, we can change your listening audience since life.

Okay, our financial products and services literally change people's lives in the positive way. So amongst many things here getting I want to cut back this, but you know, when you bank, companies are recognizing the value of one United based product set and delivering that as an employee benefit as an example. So so, so what I'm saying is people understand that people that having the opportunity to have this type of services really affects people's lives in a positive way. What I'm seeing is you're an expert communicator, right and and the communication of that message to particularly the communication of that message is scale. Is how you sell product and service, particularly in this technology driven age. So so that's what I'm thinking about, is i'm doing this interview, I'm like, man, it's is a master communicator, Yes, and and and so and so that is certainly a skill set that that is very important to my business. Right so, so, so you know, it was interesting.

I'm a biteress with you. Man. What you do is I'm a fan.

I'm a fan, I'm a believer, and that's important for you to hear that because I can't take it anymore with our community not knowing how they can bank, how they can compete, how it can be on the same level. And that's what One United Bank is offering them. Just because you're getting on the bus in the neighborhood don't mean you can't financially compete with other neighborhoods. And sometimes we feel trapped, and I've lived that. One United Bank allows us out of that financial trap. And that's what I want to keep saying over and over again. And I hope I'm not overstepping when I talk about one United Bank and what it can do and change financial outlooks within the community and outside the community.

I'm not saying it's just available for people in the neighborhood, but throughout the life.

If you're trying to buy cars, buy homes, start small business loans, one United Bank offers you that. But more importantly, there's a structure and there's community that does not understand they can participate financially because they're trapped in an environment where a bank does not exist and they don't think and check cashing places dominate. That is a message I want to deliver to them. The other message, Kevin, I want to deliver to the small business owners and the entrepreneurs and the future homeowners people trying to do business with equity Opportunities. One Nation One United Bank offers that as well. And I don't want like I say again, I'm excited that you chose my format to bring this information on because of the fact that people need to hear their options where they can win. And that's what I was so excited when you chose to give me time to speak to you, because I can't talk to anybody who can't tell me the truth. And that's all you do, Kevin, is tell the truth.

Yeah, man.

And the thing is, as a people, we're so creative that this to the stint that we could start to understand how to utilize technology. I get example, that that shirt you got on right there, it's so floped. Okay, you can sell them shirts. I'm not even joking with you. Okay, this is something I spent a great deal of time. I'm around every every level of fashion that is available. And what I'm saying to you is our people are so talented in so many ways that that that that that there's all kinds of products and services that we could easily be selling if we took the time to understand something like the internet, but what it really goes to, and and going back to this connection to to my my great grapes grandfathers is even then they one of the main things they came away with what they created, something called Dogs Academy and what it was because they understood even then our real challenges is lack of education, in particularly financial literacy. Okay, So in the eighteen hundreds, the leaders of my family were talking about that and how that was the main thing holding black people back even then, and so and so, so this legacy that that that my family has of understanding the importance of financial literacy because see, so much of what you just talked about goes to the person being financially literate enough to understand what you just said so that they get Okay, one of our biggest problems we systematically overpay for mortgages. Yes, we just pay too much. Yes, why because we're not financially literate? Okay, And so what so this challenge has existed for Black Americans.

Going back to the eighteen hundreds, man, and.

Now our opportunity but our generation has it, has it has technology, and we have the ability to be effective communicators. So this thing that you and me are talking about right now could change society. Okay if we could, okay, use artificial intelligence so that people can make better financial decisions. We're communicating that information to people so that they can actually understand where they are financially and then understand, oh, these are the decisions I need to be making that I'm not currently making.

That's literally building that word.

And then you start to come together and for us guys like you and me, frankly, what we should be saying is, look, okay, we are going to make you. We're not going to ask you, We're gonna meet you.

Okay.

Every state in this country should have a requirement where they teach financial literacy in the school system K through twelve and it's and it's a mandatory requirement to graduate to be to have taken the course of financial literacy.

If we just did that one thing, because we have standing.

Look, okay, we've been oppressed, suppressed, held back for generations.

Okay.

The least we deserve, okay, is to have the opportunity to effectively participate in the capitalist and system. It's not okay for you not to teach our kids to be financially literate. If that's not okay, okay, okay, we got this education system, So what do we do. We go state by state and you have legislation passed at a state level to create these mandatory financial literacy classes. That alone, that alone, when you talk about the racial wealth gap. I'll give you an example the financial literacy program. This one was designed for this county outside of Los Angelesco, Riverside County. When it was when they did studies on what was the economic impact of having this course of study in financial literacy as part of the graduation requirements, It's worked one hundred and twenty six thousand dollars per kid over their lifetime. So, in other words, going from a network of some people used numbers like eight dollars to just doing this one thing, having them when they go to school, having to take these courses and financial literacy as a requirement to graduate will create over one hundred thousand dollars in network or that person over their life.

Wow.

So that's the kind of thing and so and so here again, you're master communicator. Man, I'm amazing.

I'm like this, you know, Kivid, I appreciate you. You know. I just don't want everybody to know.

One United Bank is the premier bank for urban communities, the largest black owned bank, the first black inter of that bank. One United is an FDIC insured bank and an equal housing lender bank. More importantly, I'm speaking to the owner, chairman, chiefs ex officer of One United Bank, my brother.

It's been twenty two years since we've said hello.

Please, please don't make it be another twenty two years before we speak again, because I know we're talking now in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. I want to talk early early first quarter twenty twenty five. And let's put a plan together, man, I find financial literacy plan together about letting people know there's a bank out there that's available for them that will change their lives.

They just need to know about it. Thank you Kevin for coming on.

The show right. Appreciate you man. Thank you very much.

This has been another edition of Moneymaking Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests on the show today, and thank you our listening to the audience now. If you want to listen to any episode, I want to be a guest on the show. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.

Keep winning.