Wooden boards on the storefront glass of the Amalgamated Bank at 94 E. Burnside Ave. give it the appearance of a long-time shuttered business. Officially though, it is scheduled to close by Sept. 25.

 

On Monday, Aug. 24 a group of protestors gathered to let bank administrators know the decision will hurt a community already facing daunting financial prospects in the midst of an economic downturn complicated by a public health crisis. Speakers at the rally included several small business owners as well as community board leaders.

 

The protest, organized by the Jerome Avenue Revitalization Collaborative (JARC), was led by Pierina Sanchez, a local resident and client of Amalgamated Bank. She is also a declared city council candidate for District 14. During her remarks, Sanchez included criticism of Chase Bank which has a branch just a few blocks west on Burnside Avenue and has been closed since October 2019.

“To us these closures are personal. Today we stand together, organized and concerned by the love of our community and a commitment to our future,” she told the crowd.

 

Emmanuel Martinez, Bronx Community Board 7 chairperson, attended the rally and sees a similar problem arising in Norwood when financial institutions abruptly leave. “We had a situation where Chase just closed their doors and we still feel it,” Martinez said.  He was referring to the closing of the Chase branch at 311 E. 204th St. last October which came as a surprise to many customers, as reported by Norwood News at the time.

Unlike the big banks which are closely tied to big corporations and Wall Street profits, Amalgamated Bank was founded on the belief that working-class people need a financial institution to work for them.

 

According to the company’s website, the bank was formed in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the same labor union that sponsored the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative in Van Cortlandt Village in the late 1920s.

 

During the 20th century, the bank was the first to offer services targeted at working New Yorkers and immigrants, like free checking accounts and foreign-exchange transfer services securing safe remittances to relatives abroad.

Responding to a request for comment from Norwood News, a spokesperson from Amalgamated Bank wrote, “Throughout the pandemic, our team has proactively reached out to more than 1,000 Burnside customers – most of our Burnside customer base – to help them gain access to online banking, provide ATM and debit cards, and provide products, services and information on how Amalgamated can serve them during these trying times.”

 

The statement continued, “Amalgamated remains committed to providing continued resources for financial literacy in the Burnside community and in our other Bronx branch location; offering remote transition services, including live online trainings, as well as a dedicated phone number and email for Burnside clients to get support; and, in addition to the 40,000+ Allpoint ATMs across the country – 25 of which are within one mile of the Burnside Branch – we are working to get customers access to Allpoint +, deposit accepting ATMs in the area.”

Amalgamated’s stated commitment to the community still worries Sanchez though.

 

“When Amalgamated says, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to have everybody go into online banking,’ that doesn’t work for us,” she said. “That doesn’t work for us because our community is not all online and is not all knowledgeable about how to use the internet.”

 

Indeed, a report by the City Comptroller in September 2019 supported this assertion. The Comptroller’s analysis found that internet disparities are pervasive throughout New York City. Across the five boroughs, 29 percent of households – 917,239 in total – lack broadband internet access.

 

*Síle Moloney provided additional reporting to this story.