An activist investor group is seeking to put two of its members on the board of New York-based Carver Bancorp, one of the nation’s oldest and largest black-owned financial institutions.

Dream Chasers Capital Group, which claims to own or control 9.7 percent of Carver’s 5.1 million shares outstanding, filed a proxy report with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week naming Jeffrey Anderson and Jeffrey Bailey for three-year directorships.

Carver’s annual meeting is scheduled for December 12.

Anderson, a certified public accountant, has held executive positions at several large financial services firms, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and insurer AIG. Bailey, a longtime entrepreneur and CEO of Orange, Calif.-based Dunham metal processing, is Carver’s largest shareholder, Dream Chasers said.

It is the latest move by the Dream Chasers to assert their control over the $749 million-asset bank.

Earlier this year, Carver pushed back an offer by Dream Chasers to acquire a 35% stake at $3.25 per share. The company cited “unsound financial resources” and an “anticipated inability” to obtain regulatory approval. At the time, Carver’s stock was trading well below Dream Chaser’s offering price. Shares have traded at $2 or less for most of 2024 and closed Monday at $1.63.

Carver filed a power of attorney with the SEC earlier this month urging shareholders to vote against the Dream Chasers and for their own nominees, Kenneth Knuckles, the retired CEO of the Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corp. and Jillian Joseph, a veteran New York attorney who has served on Carver’s board since 2019.

In an open letter Monday, Dream Chasers CEO Greg Lewis said the upcoming director vote provided Carver investors with an opportunity to end “years of poor share price performance, millions of dollars in operating losses and massive destruction of shareholder value”.

The group’s letter comes less than two weeks after Carver’s the new CEODonald Felix, a former Citibank and JPMorgan Chase executive, took the helm. Carver reported losses totaling $888,000 through June 30, on top of $1.9 million in 2023, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Felix succeeds Michael Pugh, who led Carver 11 years earlier. Quitting to join Local Initiatives Support Corp., a New York nonprofit, as CEO. Director Craig MacKay was acting CEO.

In his Nov. 1 proxy, Carver pointed to several positive trends that emerged during MacKay’s administration, including loan earnings, deposits and net interest income, all of which increased in the 12 months ended June 30. “Carver has achieved notable financial milestones that underscore the strength of our strategic plan to improve profitability and increase shareholder value,” the trustee said.

In May, the bank said it received a $25 million loan from the state-backed New York Green Bank to help finance decarbonization projects in Carver’s urban footprint.

Dream Chasers, for its part, said none of the progress Carver pointed to was reflected in the bank’s bottom line. “The fundamental truth is that no company can fulfill its mission if it loses money,” Lewis wrote in Monday’s letter.

Carver, which has been designated a Community Development Financial Institution by the Department of the Treasury, was founded in Harlem in 1948 to serve African-American communities whose access to banking services was limited.