Thread: PFF Bank and Trust "Customer First" Banking

This report outlines PFF banking industry policies 2004-now.


http://www.csupomona.edu/~scabraham/htm ... 0Jan06.doc


Page 17, 18
"PFF is also targeting Hispanics, which represent the largest ethnic group in Southern California at 40.6%.37 Approximately 35-45% of the Inland Empire’s population is Hispanic. This is a $2M to $2.5M emerging market.38 PFF allows undocumented aliens to use the matricula consular cards (an official Mexican-government document that contains the name, date, place of birth, current photograph, the holder’s signature, a U.S. address, and a current address) to open accounts and cash checks. The U.S. Treasury Department has given explicit approval to U.S. banking institutions to accept the matricula consular card for identifying and verifying the identity of customers seeking to open financial accounts.39 According to Mr. Rinehart:
“PFF is really proud of its efforts in this regard. We invest about $2 to $2.5 million every year in advertising and marketing for emerging markets. We think that that’s a critical component of the future of the bank, and I guess in some ways that ties into the business model, too. We have tripled our Hispanic customer base during the five years we’ve been on this program. You can drive down any of the streets here and see that probably a third of our billboards are in Spanish, catering to that customer. We do a lot of little things in that area, such as honoring the matricula card as authentic identification to open up accounts. It is a tough political issue on that one too. Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo were allowed to pilot the program honoring the matricula card. As soon as the government said the program was working OK, PFF was the next one into the market. That was not without an awful lot of thought, because what we were talking about was undocumented immigrants. Do they have the same rights as everyone else? It was a very tough issue. When Ron Gutierrez, our emerging-market director, came to me and said that most Hispanic people did not have checking accounts and were utilizing these paycheck stores, paying up to 20% just to cash their check. Then to add to that misery, they were walking around with all this cash in their pockets. We decided to honor the card, regardless of political feelings... It’s interesting that that comes back to enhancing the bank’s shareholder value. We’re doing something that is the correct and right thing to do socially. As a consequence, we get new Hispanic business, which enhances shareholder value through increasing stock price and having more customers.”
Many individuals of Mexican descent come to the U.S. with a distrust of banks due to their experiences with Mexican banks. Therefore, a core element of PFF’s strategy in this emerging market is to gain the trust of this target market. Another core element of the strategy is to educate. Employees of the firm volunteer in Pomona’s K-12 schools because of its high concentration of minorities. They educate the children regarding banking in the US and sound personal-finance practices including how to balance a checkbook, how to save, and how to apply for a loan. To better compete for this segment, PFF has developed a Spanish-language website, and markets through Spanish-language publications and radio stations."

RESEARCH YOUR NEW BANK FOR LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZENS CAREFULLY!!!
I'm shopping for my new bank now.

such as honoring the matricula card as authentic identification

America betrayed by those that we have made.

ShockedinCalifornia, when you find a credit card that only care about American citizens, PLEASE post it because we have a Bank of America credit card and we want to get rid of it. Thank you very much.