SUNRISE BANKS
wealth inequality . Sunrise Banks ’ four retail locations , spread throughout Minneapolis , are strategically located in low-to-middle income census tracts to help the bank better serve its underrepresented customers . The Twin Cities region has plentiful graduate prospects too , with Sunrise Banks partnering with local universities on a successful internship programme .
Bringing affordable lending into reach The core tenet of high-impact lending revolves around providing credit to as many customers as possible , Seydel puts it : “ How can we take a product , have the lowest interest rate we can , and make it easy for them to repay so they don ' t even have to think about it ? All they need to think about is what they ' re going to use that money for , and everything else happens on the backend without them needing to do a thing .”
One way the bank does this is by removing the need for credit checks in some products – which rely on an often-outdated snapshot of a customer ' s circumstances , and can marginalise those customers most in need of credit . If a borrower is in full-time employment and earns enough to be able to repay their loan , why shouldn ' t they be considered a safe debtor ? Traditional credit checks , which have been accused of being outdated in the past , place surprisingly little emphasis on a borrower ' s earnings and instead focus on debt history and the promptness with which they repaid previous loans . In theory , a customer ' s financial situation could have worsened and their ability to repay deteriorated – but so long as they have repaid loans in the past , they are likely to be accepted by traditional lenders .
Sunrise Banks turns this antiquated process on its head . The effect is a suite of lending products that boosts financial
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