isf news
ANNUAL STATEMENT
Given by: Chairman & CEO Norman J. Williams
2008 was arguably the most challenging year most of us have ever experienced. Following the deteriorating trend begun in the latter part of 2007, financial markets collapsed as a result of massive investments in speculative securities tied to risky real estate loans. Many old and respected investment banks, such as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Sterns no longer exist. Large mortgage lenders such as Washington Mutual, InyMac, Wachovia and Countywide Financial have closed or been acquired by other banks.
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SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
When it came time for Mell Monroe and his wife, Angela Higginbotham Monroe, to refinance their mortgage earlier this year, the couple shopped around for attractive rates. One bank offered a nice enough loan, but there was a catch. The bank wanted to charge the couple an extra fee to receive its lowest interest rate. Its representatives explained that they were assessing the fee because Monroe’s credit score had recently dropped 75 points because of a late payment.
Monroe wasn’t happy. He felt he wasn’t the credit risk his slightly blemished FICO score implied.
So the couple kept looking. In the end, the Monroes found a new lender in Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan Association (No. 16 on the B.E. Banks list with $143.8 million in assets), a small community bank headquartered just five blocks from their home in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.
SHRED FEST
On Saturday, August 23, 2008, ISF sponsored SHRED-O-RAMA, a document shredding day offered as a free service to our customers and members of the community. More than 100 participants came to drop off their unwanted paper documents and watch as they were safely shredded and hauled away by Accurate Document Destruction, Chicagoland’s largest mobile document-destruction service.
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IDENTITY THEFT
Shred all of your important documents and personal information once you no longer need them. Thieves steal discarded mail including bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit card offers, tax information and cancelled checks.
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