HarborOne CU Launches Nation’s First ‘Multiculutral Banking Center’

BROCKTON, Mass. – Executives from HarborOne CU will appear with state officials this morning to unveil a ‘multicultural banking center,’ one of the first initiatives in the country to offer a comprehensive set of financial education courses targeting various immigrant groups. The HarborOne project will provide classes in personal finance, foreclosure prevention and credit counseling in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and courses in English as a second language. Brockton is a blue-collar city teeming with large populations of Spanish, Portuguese and Cape Verdean immigrants. The aim of the center, according to officials with the $1.4 billion credit union, is to draw these groups into the mainstream of financial services and to teach them how to avoid expensive check-cashing, payday loan, pawnshops and rent-to-own providers. Participants in the program will be eligible for special loan and savings programs offered by HarborOne. The center will be located in HaborOne’s branch on Legion Highway. HarborOne’s President James Blake will officially launch the program today, accompanied by Steven Antonakes, the state’s Banking Commissioner, and Daniel Crane, director of the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs, and representatives of several non-profit organizations serving the same clientele.