Growth is phenomenal Delaware's banking industry employed 4,600 workers in 1980. The number of workers has increased almost eightfold today, with 65 percent of the jobs tied to credit cards, said Eleanor Craig, a professor of economics at the University of Delaware and former chief economic adviser to du Pont. Every banking job also has created 1.6 service jobs at restaurants, hair salons and other businesses, or about 34,000 in all, Craig said. In all, about 35 new banks brought operations to Delaware after the new financial laws were passed. The new industry helped spur the economy and enabled the state to lower the personal income tax rate to its current 5.95 percent from almost 20 percent in 1980.
Some leaders also credit the law for bringing new ideas, culture and a more diversified population.
Today that's not true. Fair lending activists and neighborhood groups acknowledge the positive changes. But they want the banks to do more for the state's poor, given the banks' profits. Building boom Real estate professionals and academics point to the banking growth as a major force in the state's commercial and housing construction expansion. The market has since quadrupled in square footage, and financial companies make up a significant portion of the leases.