In 1995, Teri Williams embarked on a mission that would reshape her career and impact communities across the country. Along with her partner, Kevin Cohee, she acquired her first bank, the first step in a journey to build a powerful institution dedicated to empowering Black Americans.
Today, as president and chief operating officer of OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the United States, Williams has helped finance nearly $1 billion in loans for low- to moderate-income communities, including Los Angeles’ South Central and Compton, as well as Liberty City in Miami.
Williams’s work is deeply personal, stemming from her belief that everyone can control their own economic destiny. She has said her great-grandmother, an entrepreneur who owned several businesses in a segregated Florida town, helped inspire her lifelong mission.
“The work I do now is meaningful to me,” she told her alma mater, Brown University, earlier this year, “because we’re helping to make financial literacy a core value, particularly in Black communities.”
Her journey to OneUnited began in the mid-1990s, when she left a successful career at American Express, where she was the youngest-ever vice president. A family friend told her of the Boston Bank of Commerce’s need for new leadership, and she saw an opportunity to use her corporate experience to serve her community. Over the next several years, she and her partner would purchase three more Black-owned banks, eventually consolidating them into the unified, national brand known today as OneUnited.
The move was a response to a long-standing need. The Boston Bank of Commerce, founded in 1962, had served as a vital haven for Black individuals turned away from other financial institutions.
By consolidating these banks, Williams and her team created a strong entity with a valuation of $700 million and a customer base of approximately 100,000, with 80% of clients being Black. The bank’s mission is to help close the racial wealth gap, a staggering disparity that a 2024 Federal Reserve study estimated at $240,000 between the median Black and white household.
To serve this community, the bank has pioneered innovative products designed to provide financial access where others have failed.
For instance, the “Second Chance” checking account serves individuals who have been shut out of other institutions due to a negative banking history. At the same time, a secured credit card helps customers rebuild their credit.
The “Cash, Please,” short-term loan program was created to offer a safer, more affordable alternative to predatory check-cashing stores, which can charge interest rates as high as 400%. The bank has also adopted technology, launching an AI tool to help customers make smarter financial decisions, a feature that, according to Williams, has been “a big hit for us.”
Her popular “Teri Talks” on OneUnited’s official Instagram account provides customers and followers with up-close and personal access to information and tools to enhance their financial health.
Williams’ influence extends beyond OneUnited. She is the founder of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and serves on the board of CCC Intelligent Solutions and the Boston Foundation Racial Wealth Gap Partnership.
She is also the author ofI Got Bank! What My Granddad Taught Me About Money, a financial literacy book for young people.
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Source: Black Enterprise
