St. Paul's Cherokee State Bank gets Spanish accent.

Cherokee State Bank, St. Paul, is Minnesota's first officially bilingual bask.

The $122 million-asset bank's newest branch will open in a grocery that serves the Hispanic community. It will employ Spanish-speaking employees and offer services geared specifically toward the conunity, such as easy ways to send money to Mexico and check-cashing programs.

The niche makes sense, said analyst Raymond Cabillot of Piper Jaffray Inc., Minneapolis.

"They have identified a group of people they feel are underserved," he said. "In the spirit of community banking, they are going after these people."

While bilingual or multilingual banking is commonplace in some areas, the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis are more homogeneous.

"We very definitely have a less diverse population," said Heidi Gesell, Cherokee's executive vice president.

Cherokee's branch application is the first the Minnesota Department of Commerce has received that was "specifically targeted as bilingual," said D. Bryce Hallowell, a spokesman for the department.

Still, the Hispanic community is long established in Cherokee's west side neighborhood and is growing, Ms. Gesell said. The areas surrounding the new branch are between 20% and 36% Hispamc, according to census data she provided.

The bank stumbled upon the importance of Spanish-speaking staff after it hired an employee who happened to be fluent in the language.

When she was transferred from her training site to another location, Spanish-speaking customers complained and the bank moved her back.

In addition, one of the bank's customers, El Burrito Market, was constructing a new building and planned to include a checkcashing facility. Instead, Cherokee negotiated to open a branch there.

Four bilingual employees have been hired to work in the branch when it opens at the end of this month.

Next, Cherokee may hire employees who can speak the languages of another prominent group in the area, people from Southeast Asia.

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