Economy

An Ingenious Banking Model: Speak Spanish and Serve Immigrants

For one North Carolina credit union, courting Latino immigrant members is a risk that pays off.
LCCU

Paula Carde’s family business almost didn’t get off the ground, because no traditional bank was willing to extend an initial line of credit to the fledgling construction company. “I went to SunTrust, I went to BB&T, I went to Four Oaks,” says Carde, “and because our business was so new, they weren’t willing to give us enough.”

The only North Carolina financial institution willing to take a chance on Carde, her brother, and her father—all immigrants from Chile—was the Latino Community Credit Union, headquartered in Durham. The 26-year-old Carde had been depositing her paychecks there for years, and in retrospect she should have approached LCCU first. Taking chances on immigrants is what the credit union does.