7/2/2023 0 Comments Abacus federal savings bank![]() ![]() In December of 2009, Vera Sung discovered that Ken Yu, one of Abacus Bank’s loan originators, was writing “liar loans,” i.e., loans supported by false documentation of such information as the borrower’s job titles, income, and sources of down payment. Finally, Abacus illustrates the importance of informal and flexible lending practices to bringing the unbanked and underbanked members of racial and ethnic minorities into the formal market for financial services and credit, a notion known as “the democratization of credit.” Second, Abacus exposes the incompetence of a prosecution that, in failing to understand the cultural context of an ethnic minority bank and its customers, winds up exploiting and reinforcing economic stereotypes and biases about them. First, Abacus provides a window into the operation of a small family-run, community-focused ethnic bank, both in general and in a time of crisis. The film offers three very important insights on economic equality and minority-group advancement. The bank was the only financial institution tried for mortgage fraud in the wake of the subprime lending debacle that led to the Great Recession of 2008.Ībacus: Small Enough to Jail, a documentary by Steve James, follows the course of the criminal proceedings from the perspective of the Sungs. One of his daughters (Jill) is its president and CEO and another (Vera) is a director and its closing attorney. It was founded by Thomas Sung, a Chinese American, in 1984. Steve James presents the story of the Sungs and their struggle to save their family-run Chinatown bank from a misguided prosecution based on cultural incompetence.Ībacus Federal Savings Bank is a small institution that is headquartered in Manhattan’s Chinatown and serves an Asian American and Asian immigrant population.
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