Shaunte Robinson, Business Development Executive and Midwest Segment Lead for Inclusive Banking at J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking, sat down with the Recorder to discuss financial inclusion, inclusive banking and assisting in the growth of Black and minority-owned businesses.
The inclusive Banking Team of J.P. Morgan provides connections, access and various educational opportunities to middle market business owners from any industry or background.
J.P. Morgan has also recently supported the Indianapolis Urban League, the Indy Chamber, and the Indiana Black Expo with various grants.
Grants such as a $475,000 grant to support LISC Indianapolis to expand and strengthen the Indianapolis CDFI Collaborative, an alliance of six mission-driven Community Development Financial Institutions, are among the many grants provided to local entities. This grant is committed to closing persistent capital access gaps for small business owners from historically low-income and low-wealth communities in Indianapolis. By giving over $22.6 million in philanthropic contributions from 2019-2024, J.P. Morgan has invested in the success and growth of organizations all over Indianapolis.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you explain a little bit about yourself? And how did your position at JPMorgan and Chase help Black and minority businesses achieve their overall strategy of financial growth?
Shaunte Robinson: I am a Midwest lead for our inclusive banking team [and a] business development executive. Our role at the bank is to provide access and growth opportunities to help businesses scale. We have a particular focus on businesses that come from underrepresented areas and have had historical challenges in obtaining and having access to capital cover banking products. So, our role is to help give them a leg up, help them navigate the firm and then also help them access external opportunities.
With your strategic focus being on supporting minority, women, and veteran owned businesses, what resources do you provide or what kind of coaching and banking advice do you provide people?
Robinson: Over the last several years that we established this team, we’ve worked with a number of external organizations on understanding that business service organizations are kind of the heartbeat of local communities. Also, as these businesses are scaling, they’re going to these organizations for information and resources whether that be certification or you know, for them to expand their network.
So, we’ve created a few programs and partnerships with these business organizations. One is CEOcircle, and that’s in support of our veteran entrepreneur community and each year we bring together approximately 70 CEOs for a 12-month program where they have about 4 in-person meetings a year.
What is financial inclusion? Who does it affect, and how does financial inclusion help Black and minority-owned businesses in the current economic climate?
Robinson: I generally say, one: if you look at the rate at which capital has been provided, particularly for Black entrepreneurs, it’s less than half a percent. And so those are what we understand to be the barriers of growing businesses and even can be preventative in individuals starting that business. What we’ve, as a firm, understood is that the entrepreneurial world track should be for everyone and inclusive of everyone.
Not everyone has a Harvard network, right? So, if you don’t have the Harvard network, you just don’t know where to go. And what we’ve also seen is that minority businesses are often first-generation business owners, so they’ve never seen it before. And as they continue to hit different inflection points of growth in their business, they stumble, and they do not have some of the resources, or folks need to rely on that understands where they are in their business journey… So inclusive banking to us is that everyone has opportunity to grow a business, and what we are trying to do is bridge the gap of information and access to the things they need to sustain that business.
What other organizations do you work with to enhance your involvement in the overall growth of Black and minority businesses?
Robinson: We play a role in in our engagement across our different markets; I have counterparts all across the country. We play a role in building relationships with the local chambers, the local Black chambers as well, offering not only guidance and support, but identifying areas for some of those challenges that we could possibly solve for or come up with programs or solutions. I think about some of the chambers, and I think about some of these across, and we call them designations, but across backgrounds or inclusive organizations that check a few different boxes.
Overall, how would you say that strategy is developed or succeeded over time to where we are now?
Robinson: You generally hear financial literacy and help on an individual bases, but the communities that we work in some of our employees live in and then what that can do to uplift individuals and put them on the right track once they feel more highly secure… we dove very deep into not only some of the challenges around rebuilding infrastructures around affordable housing, but the overall impact, the long-lasting impact that [we] can create for communities.
For more information visit their website https://www.jpmorgan.com/commercial-banking/impact/inclusive-banking
Contact Staff Writer Malik Simon at 317-762-7847.
Malik Simon is a Staff Writer for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Memphis, TN, he graduated from Mississippi Valley State University with a Bachelor of Arts in General Studies concentrating on journalism. Before joining the Recorder, he wrote for the Devil’s Gazette newspaper at MVSU and served as a freelance content and video editor. He seeks to use media to help communities flourish through literacy and factual reporting.
