Banks Can Help Protect Workers
Immigrants seen as 'walking ATMs'

Jen DeGregorio
The Times-Picayune

Police patrols and a vehicle checkpoint on nearby Chef Menteur Highway did not stop gunmen from robbing and shooting seven immigrants, two of them fatally, during a home invasion in eastern New Orleans late last month.

But some business leaders wonder if a more active banking community could have helped thwart the crime against the Laotian family and other Asian and Hispanic immigrants who have been robbed, and in some cases shot and killed, in eastern New Orleans in recent weeks.

"They are getting targeted by these people because they have cash," said Karl E. Hoefer, president of the New Orleans unit of IberiaBank. "Everyone is conscious of that."

It is an old trick of criminals to prey on immigrants, who are known to shy away from banks and carry cash, said New Orleans Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse. Cultural and language barriers often keep newcomers to the United States from using financial institutions. Fear also plays a role, particularly among illegal immigrants who believe banks will discover and report their immigration status.

"They call them the walking ATMs," said Martin Gutierrez, director of the Hispanic Apostolate of the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, in describing the perception some criminals have of immigrants.

That dark moniker is just one reason why banks should rethink the services they offer immigrants, U.S Attorney Jim Letten said.

"I think that we have to find new ways that the banking community can help to ameliorate this phenomenon," Letten said. "What has to happen is the use of banks has to become widespread enough that the individuals who are trying to exploit the nonuse of banks understand it.

"Educating the immigrant community about the desirability of using financial institutions to protect interests . . . is obviously important," he said.

A nonprofit agency called Louisiana Appleseed is pushing banks to do just that with its fledgling Financial Access Program. The program includes a study of how Louisiana banking institutions are reaching out to underserved communities, in particular the Hispanic population. The program would culminate in free financial classes, many of which would be taught in Spanish. So far Appleseed has interviewed officers of local banks and credit unions and is meeting with community leaders about the kinds of services they would like to see banks offer.

"It seems like the banks really are interested in reaching out to this segment of the community," said Christy Kane, Louisiana Appleseed's executive director. "But I think what we're finding is that they've agreed that there is a barrier."

Strategies, services

Hoefer admits that there has been a disconnect between IberiaBank and the Hispanic community in particular. That is why the bank is establishing an arm that would specifically market services and products to that community. Crime is a small part of what led the company to begin thinking more strategically about reaching out to the Hispanic community, he said.

"There is an influx [of Hispanics] not only in New Orleans and Louisiana," Hoefer said.

Indeed, the Hispanic Apostolate estimates that there are between 80,000 and 100,000 Hispanics living in the New Orleans metropolitan area, compared to about 60,000 before Katrina.

"We think it's a target for us not only in New Orleans but in the whole state," Hoefer said. "I honestly think most bankers are seizing the changing demographics."

Hoefer declined to specify the kinds of services that his bank plans to gear toward Hispanics. But other financial institutions have gotten creative.

The Greater New Orleans Federal Credit Union is pushing the use of tax identification numbers as an alternative to a Social Security number for a "safe accounts" program it is launching. Most banks require a Social Security number, which scares away many immigrants who do not have a number or, in the case of illegal immigrants, may be using a false number, said Rebecca Hernandez-Collazo, the credit union's business development representative for the Hispanic community.

Protecting immigrants from crime was one reason the credit union decided to opt for the tax identification number, which would reward tax-paying immigrants without putting a microscope on their immigration status, she said.

A "disproportionate crime wave targeting immigrant communities" in 2001 inspired Texas Appleseed to launch a program similar to the Financial Access Program now being studied by its sister group, Louisiana Appleseed, said Ann Baddour, a senior policy analyst with the Texas organization. The program led many banks in the state to begin accepting identification cards from the Mexican Consulate as an alternative to a Social Security number, she said.

"There's no question that it's had a positive impact," said Baddour, adding that it has been difficult to quantify the program's results.

"I think it continues to be a work in progress," she said. "It's a process to change the way people perceive financial institutions."

Bilingual services offered

Other banks claim to have be watching New Orleans' immigrant communities, citing as evidence the hiring of bilingual employees.

Capital One, for example, has hired Vietnamese employees at its branch in eastern New Orleans, said Judy Dawson, the bank's senior vice president for New Orleans and St. Bernard. The company sends bilingual employees on calls to encourage those in the Vietnamese business community to bank with Capital One, she said.

Fidelity Homestead Savings Bank of New Orleans and Omni Bank both cite the availability of bilingual services as their biggest nod to the city's immigrant populations.

"We have targeted the Hispanic population by hiring bilingual employees at our branches and running ads on the Hispanic radio station and in the newspaper and sponsoring some of their events," said Boyd Boudreaux, president and CEO of Fidelity.

"We've always had a good number of Spanish-speaking employees," said Jim Hudson, president of Omni in Metairie. "I think our product line crosses all ethnic groups and should have a high appeal to everyone, but we haven't targeted particular products."

Boudreaux admits that tackling language barriers alone has not been enough to solve the problem of immigrants' perceived alienation by banks.

"It obviously is an issue out there, and we hate to see them targeted by the criminal element," Boudreaux said.

Gutierrez said the real work is education, and he credits programs such as Louisiana Appleseed's Financial Access Program with tackling that challenge. It will take a long time before immigrants begin to trust the banking system, and more time after that before criminals stop equating immigrants with "walking ATMs," he said.

"The banks a lot of times have their hands tied," he said. "What's happening here in New Orleans is happening all over the U.S. and has been happening in the U.S. for a long time."