Financial Institution Membership

Membership in the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council (MCBC) is open to all banks, thrift institutions and credit unions.

Membership Benefits

Membership in MCBC can help enhance a financial institution’s community investment program by:

•    Providing opportunities for bank officers to meet regularly with other area banks and community representatives.  Bankers who attend MCBC committee meetings get to hear other banks talk about their community investment programs and get to listen to the concerns and recommendations of community advocates, all in a low-key, collegial setting.  A great opportunity to trade business cards and build relationships.

•    Keeping bank officers informed about state and local community development programs.  Representatives from state and municipal programs; public, quasi-public and regulatory agencies; and community-based organizations are regularly invited to speak at MCBC committee meetings.  Bankers who attend committee meetings, or who just receive committee minutes, can hear first hand about program changes, new initiatives and community investment opportunities.

•    Supporting MCBC’s research on mortgage and small business lending patterns.  MCBC’s annual reports – Patterns of Small Business Lending and Changing Patterns – provide bankers and community-based organizations with solid, detailed information on lending patterns, including the performance of other lenders.  Small and medium-sized banks especially appreciate the availability of comparable data, minus the cost of an internal CRA research department.

•    Providing bank officers with information on emerging community development issues.  Bankers and community representatives both use MCBC’s committee meetings as a place to raise new concerns, to compare local experiences and to share information on successful strategies.  Bankers who participate find MCBC’s committees a place for one-stop shopping for information on emerging issues.

•    Lending assistance to important community development initiatives such as Basic Banking for Massachusetts and Banking Partners.   Programs developed jointly by bankers and community advocates take the guess work out of trying to figure out how to respond to important community development issues like predatory lending, low-cost account and small business loans.

•    Getting CRA credit for MCBC membership.  The Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks has determined that membership dues to MCBC are a qualified investment under the state’s CRA statute.  In-kind contributions to MCBC, including the provision of technical assistance and expertise to MCBC’s committees, are also a qualified community development service.  MCBC annually provides each member financial institution with the letter acknowledging its support for the bank’s CRA Public File.

Membership Dues

All of MCBC’s core activities are supported solely by annual dues payments from member financial institutions.  MCBC’s dues levels are on a sliding scale, based on asset size (see below).  Member dues are paid on a calendar basis; banks that join MCBC for the first time mid-year pay a pro-rata portion of the year’s annual membership dues.

Dues Schedule

Participating in MCBC Activities

Member financial institution are invited to sign up bank officers for any or all of MCBC’s committees, depending on the institution’s areas of interest. Officers on the committee distribution lists can attend meetings or simply receive committee minutes and mailings. Financial institution members also receive copies of all MCBC reports and publications. All financial institution members are invited to attend MCBC’s annual meeting in December to vote for the members of MCBC’s Board of Directors.

Becoming a Financial Institution Member

Financial institution interested in becoming a bank member of MCBC should contact MCBC’s Manager, Kathy Tullberg, at (857) 350-4916 or via e-mail at ktullberg@mcbc.info.