Black-Owned OneUnited Bank’s New Partnership Is Helping Renters Build Credit

OneUnited Bank, one of the nation’s largest Black-owned banks, is partnering with the credit-building platform Esusu to change the path to homeownership for renters during Financial Literacy Month. Esusu uses data to help improve users’ credit scores, allowing people to make it easier to get onto the housing ladder.

“This alliance is all about empowering renters with the financial tools they need to turn their homeownership dreams into reality,” Teri Williams, President & COO of OneUnited Bank, said in a press release.

OneUnited Bank’s collaboration with Esusu

By reporting on-time rental payments, this collaboration will simplify credit, pave the way to homeownership, and deliver crucial financial literacy tools and AI technology to help close the wealth gap.

“By enabling the reporting of rent payments to all three major credit bureaus, this initiative seeks to transform monthly rental costs into a pathway for increased mortgage eligibility,” Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goer said.

They continue: “OneUnited Bank will make rent reporting available to all customers, and Esusu will enable renters to access OneUnited Bank’s AI-driven financial solutions through its app.”

This is Esusu’s first collaboration with a banking institution, highlighting the importance of both organizations collaborating to support underserved communities through AI-driven financial solutions.

What is Esusu?

Esusu was founded in 2018 by Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goer to help Americans on their paths to financial stability. Abbey grew up in an improvised area in Lagos, Nigeria, and witnessed his mother borrow mother from a predatory lender at 400% interest. Goer grew up in an immigrant family from New Delhi, India, and saw how financial barriers affected his family as new residents in America.

Image: OneUnited Bank