[6] However, the bank faced significant losses in 2009,[7] and as of May 2010, was seeking $200 million in additional capital from major investors and the U.S. government.

Angered by the bank's racist lending practices, community banker-activists Milton Davis, James Fletcher, Mary Houghton, and Ron Grzywinski purchased the bank after successfully petitioning the federal Comptroller of the Currency to stop the move after creating the Illinois Neighborhood Development Corporation.

[15][16] Urban planner Stanley Hallett was a founding board member and was vice president of the bank's holding company its first five years.

During its 37 years of operation, ShoreBank played a critical role in stabilizing and rebuilding many of Chicago's low-income neighborhoods and eventually expanded globally, setting the standard for the development finance industry.

ShoreBank expanded into low-income communities in Detroit, Cleveland, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Arkansas, and the Pacific Northwest.

After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the corporation's consulting affiliate, ShoreBank Advisory Services, assisted banks in Russia and Eastern Europe with small business lending.

Its other subsidiaries provided banking, equity investing, consulting, and environmental banking services: ShoreBank established a number of affiliated nonprofits to provide related financing, technical assistance, and consulting services: ShoreBank, its co-founders, and its affiliates have received numerous awards and honors, including from the magazines Fast Company,[26] Business Ethics,[27] and U.S. News & World Report,[28] University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, the Independent Community Bankers of America,[29] Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago,[30] the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce,[31] and Governor Ted Kulongoski of Oregon.

[33] Under a grant from the Ford Foundation in the 1980s, ShoreBank worked with Muhammad Yunus to advise him on the growth of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

As unemployment spiked beyond levels ever seen before, tenants struggled to pay rent; vacancies increased and landlords got behind in their loan payments.

The single family portfolio was also negatively impacted and delinquency rates went higher than historical levels.

[37] The new management team of the former ShoreBank was allowed by the FDIC to run the newly formed Urban Partnership Bank.