Only five banks were opened during this time, while seeing many black-owned banks closed, leaving these banks with an expected nine-year life span for their operations. With African-Americans continuing to migrate towards Northern urban areas, they were faced with the challenge of suffering from high unemployment rates, due to non-minorities willing to do work that African Americans would previously take part in. At this time the entire banking industry, in the U.S., was suffering however, these banks suffered even more due to being smaller, having higher closure rates, as well as lower rates of loan repayment. The first groups of banks invested their finances back into the Black community, where as banks established during this period invested their finances mainly in mortgage loans, fraternal societies, and U.S. government bonds.