The Changing Face of the Eighth District

By Tiffany Guynes, Community Affairs Specialist, Little Rock Branch

In 1994, First National Bank (FNB) of Rogers, Ark., took a proactive approach to helping its growing first-generation Hispanic customer base develop the skills necessary to succeed in acquiring financial services.

First, the bank addressed a basic need--communication. Since most of the immigrants did not speak English, FNB hired several bilingual tellers who could communicate effectively with customers in their native tongue.

As Roland Goicoechea, vice president with FNB, explained, "In the past, Spanish-speaking customers may have waited in a long line until our only bilingual teller became available. Now that has all changed. They go to the next available teller because they know they will be able to communicate with them."

Goicoechea and FNB didn't stop there. Working with the immigrant community, they identified other needs. "For the most part, we were talking about first generation, non-English speaking immigrants that were unprepared to succeed in our financial system," Goicoechea said. "Generally speaking, they had no formal credit or credit history in this country and little or no understanding of the services and products available to them."

The bank decided that education was the key and developed a series of five seminars aimed at teaching basic financial skills. Topics range from a basic overview of financial services, to how to write a check in English, to investments.

The seminars are presented in partnership with area employers, who pay employees to attend during their regular workday. Beyond the seminars, FNB decided to address a third issue--homeownership. A predominant barrier to homeownership for the immigrant population was that most had no credit history, making it nearly impossible for them to secure a mortgage. To bridge this gulf, FNB took the following steps:

• loans of $500 to eligible applicants, with proceeds of the loan placed in a six-month certificate of deposit. When it matured, the loan was repaid. Through this simple process, the borrower created a credit history while earning interest on the investment.
• Relaxing underwriting standards to use nontraditional credit history factors, such as payment of monthly bills for utilities, telephone and water.

According to an August 1996 special census, the city of Rogers has 1,000 Hispanic households. Of these, 250 families own their own homes, many as a result of efforts by FNB. The program has been so successful it is being adopted in Emporia, Kan., which is experiencing similar challenges in serving its immigrant populations.