DURHAM, N.C. – The history of credit unions' work with immigrants was the theme of the 4th Latino Credit Union Conference that was kicked off in Durham on June 7. Four credit union CEOs told approximately 200 CU executives, board members and advocates about how their CUs have worked with immigrants.
"We believe in our members, we believe in our community. Our community is the Hispanic market of El Paso and they believe in us" said Harriet May, CEO of the $1.1 billion Greater El Paso Credit Union, in a presentation which laid out how her credit union had been working in a community of more 700,000 residents, more than 80% of whom are Hispanic.
May told her audience that one in every three El Paso residents is a member of GECU and she described how CUs need to couple sincere communications with modern marketing techniques like focus groups in order to better serve Hispanic members. Luis Pastor, CEO of the $34 million Latino Community Credit Union, a leader among Latino credit unions which is headquartered in Durham, praised credit unions overall for starting to work with Hispanic immigrants, but also encouraged them to do more. "We need not only more tellers and loan officers, but we also need more CEOs and board chairmen that understand the Latino market and who are committed to developing closer relationships with the Hispanic community," Pastor said. Ronald Rioux, CEO of the $615 million St. Mary's Bank Credit Union, headquartered in Manchester, N.H., described how his CU had been working with immigrants to the U.S. from the very beginning and how it had found real success with the Home Ownership Loan Program, a program which the CU offers in conjunction with a local housing authority and which had made $9.5 million in mortgages in 2005.
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"An essential part of our mission is to serve people of small means. St. Mary's Bank Credit Union was founded a century ago to provide access to affordable financial services to immigrants and that need still exists today as strongly as it existed 100 years ago," he said.
Pablo Defillippi, board member of the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union, said the presentations made the case that serving immigrants is nothing new to credit unions. On the opposite, providing access to financial services to immigrant populations has remained a constant for the credit union movement throughout the years.
"We are encouraged by the growing number of credit unions that are opening their services to immigrants in general and Latinos in particular and look forward to sharing the experience and expertise that we have developed to help those who are still either not convinced or not prepared to serve these populations," he said.
Editor's Note: See related Latino CU coverage on page 49.
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