Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Chase Executives Fondly Recall Financial Company’s Hip-Hop Roots

From AFNS:
Sitting in the multinational corporation’s boardroom, Chase executives reportedly spent most of Friday afternoon nostalgically recalling the financial company’s hip-hop roots, reminiscing about being young bankers who helped create the vibrant music, cultural, and investment scene in the South Bronx.

“Chase came from the streets, and we were part of this real underground banking movement that was thriving in hip-hop culture,” said Chase Consumer and Community Banking chairman Todd “Bizzy B” Maclin of the FDIC-insured institution’s early days in the late 1970s, before it became a household name. “Back in the day, our financial crew was down with Afrika Bambaataa, Morten Arntzen, the Cold Crush Brothers, Winthrop W. Aldrich—all the hip-hop pioneers.”

“We were pushing the boundaries of providing lending services and experimenting with a lot of funky-ass fund transfers,” Maclin added. “Everybody in the Bronx knew that Chase had the freshest deposits, the freshest withdrawals, and the freshest adjustable-rate mortgages.”

Maclin, who explained that the five pillars of hip-hop include DJing, rapping, graffiti art, breakdancing, and banking, spoke reverently about Chase’s origins at “old school block parties.” While describing the lively culture that thrived from 1977 to 1983, before hip-hop banking had gone mainstream, Maclin told reporters that a diverse crowd of b-boys, fledgling financiers, and local residents attended the huge blowouts to listen to music, dance, and refinance debt at lower APRs.

Speaking wistfully about one particular “wild bash” in 1978, Maclin smiled as he recalled how a packed dance floor erupted into a frenzy when a 19-year-old Chase teller “grabbed the mic” and started holding forth on loan modification provisions while DJ Jazzy Jay spun stripped-down electro-funk breaks....MORE
Coming up a very different side of the banking business, First Citywide: