Financial Inclusion for Immigrant Consumers

FINANCIAL INCLUSION FOR IMMIGRANT CONSUMERS

 At over 50 million, Hispanics are poised to dramatically change the US demographics. Already the largest minority and with a purchasing power of near $1.5 trillion, it's projected that by 2050, 1 in 3

Americans will be Hispanic.

 •     With 45.8 million, US has largest immigrant population in the world

•     Immigration is the largest factor contributing to population growth in the U.S., adding over 2.25 million people to the U.S. population annually

•     Latino children make up 23% of the 17 & under U.S. population (over 17 million), a 39% increase in 10 years

•     65% of U.S. Latinos are Millennials, ages 22 to 35

 Today over 45 million foreignborn immigrants call the U.S. their home, representing 13% of the total U.S. population, compared to 9.7 million in 1960. Unfortunately, immigrants also represent a large part of the 10 million households that the FDIC estimates are currently unbanked, accounting for 18.9% of all foreignbornnoncitizen households. Significant segments of the immigrant population remain unbanked or underbanked, unable to plug into the US financial system. This results in missed opportunity for asset building for individuals and families, as well as challenges in building collective wealth among significant portions of our communities.

 Although it varies by nationality, first generation Hispanic immigrants are largely unbanked and tend to use high cost alternative financial service providers that don't offer a pathway to asset building that credit unions provide. 53% of Mexicans and 37% of other Latin American immigrants are unbanked, compared to20% of immigrants from Asia and 17% from Europe.

 The length of time spent in the United States, language barriers, legal status, and experience with financial institutions in their home countries are key factors. Lack of documentation is the most oft cited reason why immigrants are discouraged from opening accounts.

 With President Obama's recently announced Executive Order that provides immigration relief for more than 5 million undocumented immigrants, we face a historic opportunity to bring a sizable percentage of this population into the financial mainstream...through credit unions.

 As financial cooperatives, locally owned and accountable to their members, credit unions can and should be one of the most effective platforms for financial inclusion efforts and community development.

Jan 16, 2015 Roundtable Program

CUOnly Roundtable

9:00 AM Welcoming remarks by Gary Perez USC FCU CEO

Introductions and Roundtable Objectives: Pablo DeFilippi and Cathie Mahon

9:30 AM President Obama's immigration executive order: A historic opportunity to serve Immigrant

Populations: Cathie Mahon and Miriam De Dios

• Understanding what it is and who it benefits
• How credit unions can respond to this historic opportunity: pathways to financial inclusion

10:00 AM Assessing your readiness to serve this market: Pablo DeFilippi and Miriam De Dios

• Rethinking policies and procedures
• Developing a culture of inclusivity
• Account and transactional services
• The role of financial education: Leticia Mata  Orange County's FCU

10:45 AM Experiences from the field

• Citizenship and DACA Lending: Joe Duran  Self Help FCU
• ITIN Lending: Alejandra Seluja  CU Breakthrough
• Remittance/Citizenship/Green card/DACA/DAPA loans: Luis Peralta  Kinecta CU/Nix

11:30 AM Roundtable what your credit union is doing in this space: Moderator Cathie Mahon

Public Session

12:30 PM Working Lunch Archbishop Jose Gomez (TBC) or other guest speaker (LA City official?)

1:30 PM Leveraging Partnerships: understanding how to structure collaborations to leverage the partners' core competencies: How immigrant’s networks and social service providers are mobilizing to serve immigrants. Using community based organization networks as outreach platforms

• Catholic Charities: Ron Lopez, Chief Administrative Officer
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA): Xiomara Corpeño, National Campaigns Director
• NCLR: Marisabel Torres, Senior Policy Analyst

2:30 PM Governmental policies and responses to promoting financial inclusion:

• US Citizenship and Immigration Services: TBC
• Mexican Consulate of Los Angeles: Cónsul Adriana Argáiz, Department of Community Affairs,
• City of Los Angeles: Linda Lopez, Deputy Mayor for Immigrant Affairs