DALLAS - A former cabinet member in Mexico’s government told credit unions the opportunities for expanding to serve the Hispanic market have never been better than they are now.
In remarks to the Latino Credit Union Conference here, Juan Hernandez said many Latinos remain without financial relationships. “They are not only being robbed by check cashers, payday lenders and pawnshops, but also by criminals who know they bank out of their back pocket,” he told the meeting.
To serve the market, credit unions would be advised to have a physical presence in Hispanic communities and to do plenty of research and training before expanding into those communities.
Meanwhile, Rene Vasquez Perez, director of institutional development for Caja Popular Mexicana (CPM), which is the largest credit union in Mexico, said credit unions that want to effectively serve the Hispanic market should simplify the account opening process; reassure immigrants of the safety of their deposits; establish locations in Latino neighborhoods, and properly train staff.
The conference, which was organized by the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions in collaboration with the Network of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals, with sponsorship by the Texas league, drew nearly 300 attendees.
Among the other presentations:
* U.S. Treasurer Anna María Escobedo Cabral discussed the foreclosure crisis in America. “We know that the housing crisis itself is a manageable issue,” said Cabral. “We have been able to determine that there are roughly 1.7 million families facing foreclosure who took out subprime loans between June 2005 and 2007.”
* A Latino Leadership Forum featured Dick Ensweiler, CEO of the Texas league; Bill Cheney, CEO of the California and Nevada leagues, and Harriet May, CEO of the $1.5-billion Government Employees Credit Union (GECU) of El Paso, Texas. Cheney talked about how credit unions can serve new Americans, including people whose immigration status might be in question. He noted many California CUs have had success in accepting Matricula Consular [consular identification] cards.
To leverage the “incredible opportunity” for credit unions to serve the Latino market, Ensweiler emphasized the importance of identifying major defining factors of Latino groups within each specific community as a way for credit unions to design programs and services tailored to the needs of their membership.
May described her philosophy in serving members. “People ask me for my business plan to serve Hispanics, and I tell them we serve Hispanics because that’s our community. Our credit union members are 80% Hispanic…Maybe I need a business plan to serve our non-Hispanics,” she joked. “This is something we do because it’s our culture, because it’s the right things to do, and because it’s simply good business.” (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
