"ShoreBank invests in people and their communities to create economic equity and a healthy environment".

Founded in 1973 on the South Side of Chicago by four bankers with a deep commitment to civil-rights and economic equality, ShoreBank is America’s first and most important community development bank. A pioneer in profitably lending to underserved urban and rural communities, ShoreBank has grown to $2.1 billion in assets and has affiliates across the United States and consulting projects around the world. ShoreBank is passionate about recruiting top-performers who are serious about working at the leading-edge of community development innovation.

The touchstone of community development around the world, in the 1980’s ShoreBank consulted with then-Governor Bill Clinton on the founding of the Southern Development Bancorporation in Arkansas, and with Nobel Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus on the founding of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

In the mid 1990’s, ShoreBank helped develop a triple-bottom line approach to banking—a system equally prioritizing profits, impact on people, and the impact of a project on the environment. In 1997, ShoreBank launched ShoreBank Pacific, the nation’s first commercial bank formed to support environmentally sustainable development. ShoreBank Pacific scores potential loan customers based on the sustainability of their operations, environmental impact, and similar factors. In Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, ShoreBank has pioneered lending for projects involving Green Building, urban environmental conservation, and energy efficiency

Most recently, ShoreBank created the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a consulting service and think-tank to encourage the financial services sector to serve unbanked and underbanked consumers.

Over the last thirty years, loans made by ShoreBank, especially home mortgage loans and loans to small businesses, have contributed to the economic resurgence of Chicago neighborhoods like Kenwood, Chatham, Bronzeville, Austin, and, most dramatically, South Shore. Over one-quarter of all mortgage and rehab loans in the South Shore area have been made through ShoreBank. ShoreBank has helped finance the purchase and renovation of 49,000 affordable housing residences. Between 2000 and 2006, it issued nearly $900 million in loans to citizens in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland.

Today, ShoreBank has branches and offices in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Washington D.C., Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, throughout Washington State and Oregon, and in London, England. Although mission-based, the bank's financial performance regularly matches or exceeds that of its peer banks.