Escaping the Old Boy Network: The Banking Industry and Supplier Diversity

Danielle Beavers and Sarah Werblin

In a recent study examining minority entrepreneurship opportunities, the Greenlining Institute invited California’s twelve largest banks to share their supplier diversity practices. The authors found that though people of color represent the majority of California’s population, only 7.72 percent of bank contracts go to minority-owned businesses. The Institute offers a series of recommendations to reduce contracting disparities and to foster wealth and job creation in communities of color.