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A recent Chattanooga Times Free Press article discusses the barriers to accessing the services of financial institutions for Latinos, 56 percent of whom are currently “unbanked”:

Building trust between the community and financial institutions is one of the main priorities of those working with Hispanics, financial officials say.

“We want them to trust financial institutions so they will feel comfortable coming to our credit union and eventually to other institutions,” said Stacy Johnson, Hispanic member development director with the Holston Methodist Federal Credit Union.

From June 2007 through the end of October 2008, the credit union opened 191 accounts, most for Hispanic clients, Mrs. Johnson said.

But the increase of Hispanic clients at other banks has not been as dramatic, said Keith Sanford, executive vice president with First Tennessee Bank.

The article states that First Tennessee Bank started offering Spanish classes to its staff, providing translated materials, and hiring bilingual staff in an effort to reach more Hispanics.  But to truly overcome the trust issues that make many Latinos wary of banks, these institutions need to do more community outreach and one-on-one financial literacy.  And even more important, when providing financial literacy education to new customers, institutions should be very careful about not pushing their products and services under the guise of educating. 

To read the entire article, click here.