“Big banks are abandoning rural America for more profitable urban markets, leaving many communities without adequate access to capital. That’s why unique organizations like Southern Bancorp are more important than ever.”
- Former President Bill ClintonA Different Kind of Bank
Our Mission
Southern Bancorp’s mission is to create economic opportunity in rural and underserved communities by providing responsible and responsive financial products and services that balance profits with purpose.
Our Story
Thirty years ago, some of rural America’s most underserved and distressed communities gained an economic development partner when visionaries such as Bill Clinton, Rob Walton, Mack McLarty, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and others formed the Southern Development Bank Corporation, today known as Southern Bancorp.
With an initial investment of approximately $10 million, and a mission to create economic opportunity, Southern Bancorp, Inc., along with its development partners – Southern Bancorp Bank and Southern Bancorp Community Partners, has grown to become one of the largest community development organizations in the United States, as well as a model for an entire industry of mission-focused financial institutions known as Community Development Financial Institutions or CDFIs. Today, Southern Bancorp is a $2.3 billion asset organization with over 65,000 customers and 54 branches located primarily in underserved markets in the Mid-South.
Southern’s focus is on growing its impact and influence through responsive, responsible, and innovative product delivery to the un/underbanked, as well as developing strategic partnerships that help broaden its impact far beyond its physical market borders such as with the CDFI Fund and the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV).
Our Values

Our Markets
Our Impact
For each category, we have created what we refer to as Big Hairy Audacious Goals – 10 year goals that maximize impact across our markets and beyond in three categories: supporting homeownership and housing by assisting individuals with capital and capacity, supporting jobs by facilitating entrepreneurship with capital and capacity, and supporting savings and asset accumulation by helping individuals to earn, keep and grow their assets.
2016-2026 Big Hairy Audacious Goals
Homeownership

20,000
people supported in attaining affordable housing
Entrepreneurship

120,000
jobs supported
Savings

2,000,000
people empowered to save