What happened to Wall Street’s post-Floyd bet on Black banking?

In 2020, Paul Judge and Ryan Glover, both seasoned Black entrepreneurs, started work on a plan to help solve one of America’s most intractable social problems: the yawning wealth gap between White households and Black and Latino families. After facing decades of discrimination by banks, Black and Latino customers need a safe, welcoming place to put their money, they argued, as they developed a plan for launching Greenwood, a banking platform rather than a traditional bank. Launched amid the racial justice protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Greenwood quickly drew support from prominent Black celebrities, including music producer Jermaine Dupri, and banking giants such as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. Glover and Judge boasted that 700,000 potential customers had signed up for Greenwood’s wait list before it even launched products.

But in the three years since, and after a second round of funding that valued the company at $325 million, Greenwood has failed to meet some of its initial goals, according to a review of public statements and interviews with company leaders and former employees. Less than a quarter, about 150,000, of the people on the waiting list opened accounts and Greenwood has been slow to launch promised financial products, including credit cards and business loans. Instead the company has acquired a portfolio of companies outside of the world of finance, including a private club in Atlanta, and a website that bills itself as “Black LinkedIn.” It also opened a production studio, which released a docuseries that follows efforts to revitalize the Greenwood District in Tulsa, which was leveled by a White mob in 1921. Meanwhile, California state regulators have told Greenwood to make clear that it is not itself a “bank” and it was sued by a former business partner who alleged that the company was in “financial disarray.” Three top executives, who were recruited with much fanfare, have either left or been laid off and taken their expertise with them. In an interview, Glover dismissed concerns about Greenwood’s progress and said the historically fraught relationship between the Black community and the financial sector requires that Atlanta-based Greenwood be unlike anything else in the financial industry.