HOPE Wins Wall Street Journal Financial Inclusion Challenge!

JACKSON, MS – HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation/Hope Credit Union) is the winner of the 2018 Wall Street Journal Financial Inclusion Challenge, a competition that is part of an initiative to highlight the struggles that millions of Americans face in attaining financial security.

HOPE received the honor “for its efforts to provide banking services in underserved regions of the American South,” according to The Wall Street Journal. HOPE was one of three finalists from more than 120 entries in the first U.S. iteration of the Journal’s Financial Inclusion Challenge. 

“We’re honored to be part of a national effort to promote financial inclusion in the U.S. While our submission was primarily based on our work in the Mississippi Delta, the judging also focused on HOPE’s overall strategy, particularly on how we can succeed in places that traditional financial institutions abandon,” said HOPE CEO Bill Bynum.

After acquiring donated bank branches, HOPE opened locations, from 2014 to 2015, in Drew, Itta Bena, Moorhead and Shaw – all severely distressed Mississippi towns with populations of approximately 2,000 people. All four communities are located in counties where the poverty rate has eclipsed 20 percent for more than three decades. In three of the four towns, HOPE is the only financial institution.

Within a short period, HOPE has dramatically expanded the range of financial products and services available to area residents, and now serves more than 50 percent of the population, far exceeding the former bank’s market penetration.

This is the fourth WSJ challenge, which focused this year on issues that low and moderate income Americans face in managing their personal finances and financial health. The Challenge is sponsored by WSJ and the Met Life Foundation.

Nearly 25 years ago, the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta began pursuing its mission of strengthening communities, building assets and improving lives in 55 Delta counties.  Today, HOPE serves distressed people and places throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee – a region that is home to more than one-third of the most impoverished counties in the nation.