DALLAS — The leadership forum at the conference on serving the underserved provided ways to serve the underserved and examples of already existing projects that have made strides in serving that community.

“A lot of work has been done and more needs to be done, but there have been great projects being done by credit union leagues and leaders to serve this growing Latino community and the underserved,” said John Herrera, Self-Help Credit Union's vice president for advocacy who facilitated the forum.

The panel, at the 34th Annual Conference on Serving the Underserved and 5th Latino Credit Union Conference, was made up of Bill Cheney, president/CEO of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, Richard Ensweiler, president/CEO of the Texas Credit Union League and Harriet May, president/CEO GECU and treasurer of CUNA board of directors.

Cheney started the forum by discussing the issue of immigration and immigration status and whom credit unions should serve.

“It's the board of directors job to set regulations on who the credit union should serve, and it's the credit unions job to serve all those members,” Cheney said.

Cheney went on to address the issue of the metricula consular. “It's perfectly legal to accept it and credit unions can accept it,” Cheney said. “If credit unions aren't interested in serving immigrants then who is going to serve them?”

In California, Cheney discussed the Bank on California initiative started by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and how credit unions and banks are working together to serve the unbanked in the state.

“Don't be shocked, but we're working with the California Bankers Association,” Cheney said. “There are so many things to work on and we spend a lot of time fighting with banks when we should spend more time working together to see how we can better serve members.”

Cheney noted Wescom Credit Union in Pasadena, Calif. and Kinecta Credit Union in Manhattan Beach, Calif., for purchasing check cashing outfits and payday lenders in the Los Angeles area.

“There's a better way to do payday lending than the way for-profit institutions are doing it,” Cheney said. “We can turn them around to do it the credit union way.”

Cheney also mentioned Schools First Credit Union for the work they did to help start a community development credit union, Comunidad Latina Credit Union, in the underserved area of Santa Anna, Calif.

“We're working very hard to bridge the gap between community development credit unions in California and larger more traditional credit unions, we just started and we have more to do,” Cheney said. “The most successful CDCU's are ones that have not just opened in the community but have become part of the community.”

Financial Needs

Ensweiler said that credit unions need to expand membership and highlighted the financial needs of the Latino and underserved that credit unions can target to bring in membership from those communities.

“We're losing members at a time when we're working on our service and doing different kinds of things to attract members and members are not joining at a rate to keep up with those leaving,” Ensweiler said.

The average Latino in the United States is in their 20s, is first or second generation and has never been served by a financial institution back home, which Ensweiler said fits the demographic of who credit unions should be serving. In order to gain that demographic as members, Ensweiler said that credit unions need to understand their needs.

“When you start with nothing, which most of them are, you look at the basics as to what they need.”

Many of them Ensweiler said are laborers who work hourly and get paid weekly. They go to check cashers to get money right away and walk out with cash in their pocket.

“There is an unspoken epidemic of people walking out of check cashing services and being targeted for robberies,” Ensweiler said. “But it's not reported because they are afraid of going to the police.”

Services that credit unions need to focus on are check cashing, non-interest baring accounts, wire transfers and money orders, and loans for transportation, he explained

“I get frustrated when someone says, 'Well, our board doesn't want us to serve Hispanics,'” May stated. “My business plan is we open the door at 9:30, we serve Hispanics because they're in our community.”

Out of GECU's 280,000 members May stated that 80% are Hispanic. GECU has employees who speak Spanish and supplies Spanish glossaries for employees and has forms translated for Spanish-speaking members.

May went on to discuss successful services that GECU has provided to its low-income community, including 12-hour classes to teach members how to buy a home and has so far taught 5,000 people. “We educated as many people as we possibly could, and we saved a lot of people,” May said. “We had a lot of members that had land that was a contract of sale, and we helped them get out of those contracts and helped them clear out the shacks and build a home.”

May highlighted the importance of targeting youth as well as adults through high school branches. “When we go into classrooms those kids go home and ask 'Mom do you have a credit union and where do you put your money.' And all of a sudden the students teaching mom and dad and kids are bringing parents into the credit union.”

This is the second year of what GECU calls its Savings Challenge, in which GECU coaches families to develop financial strategies and solutions to save money. One participant, May shared, was caring for her elderly mother and a mentally ill child. GECU was able to help the woman save 29% of her salary and as the winner of the challenge awarded her $10,000. The woman said that she was now able to put her daughter in a program to learn life skills to carry on when she is not there.

“If we teach El Paso to save we lift our whole community and isn't that was a credit union is about,” May said. “To serve the underserved it requires respect, patience, creativity and a little flash and splash but we're going to serve our members and we're going to have fun doing it.”

–lsiegriest@cutimes.com

Instant Insights /

Immigration, Membership and Opportunity: How CUs Can Serve the Underserved

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