SNELLVILLE, Ga.– Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15) kicked off in credit unions with a webinar hosted by the African American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC).
The webinar, part of AACUC’s Commitment to Change series, was hosted by Maria Martinez, president and CEO of Border Federal Credit Union in Texas, who was joined by Barbara Mojica, executive director of the National Association of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals; Max Villaronga, president/CEO of Raiz FCU; Victor Corro, CEO of Coopera Consulting; Samira Salem, VP-DEI with CUNA, and Pablo DeFilppi, EVP with Inclusiv.
Salem noted the conversation focused on numerous issues, including that Hispanics and Latinos are not a monolithic culture but instead numerous cultures across more than 20 countries of origin.
‘Very Relevant’
While language, food, and a history of being colonized by the Spanish are all traits shared in common by Hispanics and Latinos, the communities are various and diverse, Salem stressed.
Those Hispanic communities are “very relevant” to credit unions, according to Salem, given that in the U.S. they represent $9 trillion of purchasing power and are responsible for 51% of the population growth.
“It’s really a population that is growing quite quickly; they are already 26% the population and will account for 70% of home ownership growth over the next 20 years,” Salem said.
‘Important Reason’
“That’s another important reason why credit unions need to be thinking about their strategy for reaching and serving the Latino community.”
Still, some one-third of the community remains unbanked, according to Salem, and discussion during the webinar included addressing “how credit unions are uniquely positioned to serve this market.”
“Yet, despite all the progress we've made…we are not necessarily the financial institution of choice for the community,” Salem added.
Additional Points Shared
Other points made during the webinar included ensuring credit union staff reflect the communities and are bilingual and more.
“Credit unions also need to be thinking about the fact Latinos tend to be young, and younger generations are on social media all the time,” said Salem, noting the conversation included emphasis on how CUs can be innovative in those channels and welcome younger people and influencers as members.
Are You Being Gouged for Bank-Like Subscription Fees for Old News? Here’s a CU-Like Way to Fix That
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more. So stop paying those bank-fee-like subscription prices from other so-called “news”” publications!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?