Banks trying harder to attract ethnic groups

One branch held a bilingual 'Ask the Banker' day.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Two years ago, when married couple Duc Tran and King Chung needed a loan to move their Tink Holl Asian grocery to its current location on East 36th Street in Cleveland's Chinatown neighborhood, employees at the nearby branch of National City Bank made an impression on them.
It wasn't just that some could speak Cantonese -- Chung's native language -- but also that they worked with the partners on a personal level, Tran said.
"You have a problem, you want to solve the problem? National City is different, they come down, sit there, give you five minutes and solve the problem," said Tran, who is from Vietnam and has lived in Cleveland for more than 25 years.
"Every time a customer comes to me, I tell them to go straight to the National City," he said.
National City isn't the only financial institution working to win over ethnic groups. Virtually all banks in Ohio have been trying harder to appeal to those communities over the past few years, said Jeff Quayle, senior vice president of Ohio Bankers League.
Several offer multiple languages on their Web sites, ATMs and marketing materials, and some branch workers have phone access to translators.
Banks are trying harder to show that they're accessible to everyone, Quayle said.
U.S. Bank, based in Minneapolis, started courting Hispanics about four years ago. "About a year and a half into our initiative, we realized what a large part of the market we were missing out on," said Mariangee Merino, the banks' multicultural market manager for Cleveland and Columbus.
Since then the bank has expanded the program to look at how it can attract customers from every segment of the population in the regions where it does business, she said.
Regional management has held "multicultural boot camp" for branch managers, having them look at demographics within a 2-mile radius of their branches, Merino said. Part of their strategy is to work with local businesses and organizations, and to attend events held by cultural groups.
Attempts to connect
The U.S. Bank branch on West 25th Street in Cleveland, which caters to Ohio City's Hispanic community, held an event called "Ask the Banker" on Saturday.
Neighborhood residents could ask anything about banking in English or Spanish, said Steve Dale, spokesman for the bank.
About 20 to 30 people, most of them Hispanic, showed up during the three-hour event. They asked primarily about how checking accounts work and what it means to overdraw, he said. Another "Ask the Banker" day, headed by branch manager Esther Fuentes, is planned for the fall. A lot of local outreach is done at the branch level, Dale said, because "Branch managers are the face for the bank in that community."
Just across the street, a KeyBank branch is competing for the same customers. Workers at the branch, five of whom are Hispanic, do presentations at local schools on banking careers, said branch manager Jose Rivera.
They also participate in seminars put on by community groups and work with the Hispanic Business Association on loan packages for those starting new businesses, he said.
Third Federal Savings & amp; Loan also is focusing on the Hispanic community.
Founded by Poles in Cleveland's Slavic Village, the thrift has a long tradition of working in ethnic communities and still has many customers with eastern European roots, said bank spokeswoman Monica Martines.
Now, by teaming up with community organizations, Third Federal offers programs for Hispanics on money management and buying a house.
"What we're finding is that people are much more comfortable getting information through churches and community organizations than coming into the banks," Martines said.
According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there were 50,000 Hispanics and 30,000 Asians in Cuyahoga County in 2004.
"It's a huge opportunity for us," U.S. Bank's Merino said.
Immigrants and ethnic minorities, many of whom have never banked before, have the potential to become long-term customers, she said. And someone who starts with just a checking account will probably need a loan to buy a car or a house later.
Building trust
But to attract customers these days, banks have to be creative. The market is saturated and highly competitive.
At National City's Chinatown branch, officials make it a point to visit local businesses and talk with workers about once a week, said Matt Salmon, who manages the branch.
When people move to the area from China, their new employers or neighbors will often bring them in to open an account, he said.
Three of the 10 employees at the Chinatown branch speak fluent Mandarin and Cantonese, two of the main dialects in China, Salmon said. He estimates that one customer in 10 who comes into his branch at East 40th Street and Chester Avenue is Chinese.
It's easier to connect with customers when you have employees who can relate to them culturally, said Cristian Sandoval, vice president of multicultural marketing for National City.
On Friday, Salmon and National City branch employee Lily Yu met with customers and workers for a little over an hour at Tink Holl.
"We opened several accounts on site," Salmon said. And he said they spoke with dozens of people who he hopes will stop by the branch.
"The main thing is to establish a relationship," Sandoval said. "People won't trust you until they know you."