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2005 LATINA Style 50
Company of the Year
Latinos Will Continue to Climb
America is a country based on a series of simple,
yet powerful, ideas: freedom, equality, and
opportunity, to name a few. The beauty of the United
States of America is that as we grow, we constantly
reinvent ourselves. Our latest reinvention has a
distinctly Latin flair.
The Hispanic community is the fastest-growing
segment of the American population, and Hispanic
culture now permeates every aspect of the American
experience. More Hispanic Americans are achieving
success than ever before.
At the same time, many Hispanic families continue to
struggle to join the economic mainstream. Our market
research shows that 39 percent of Hispanic-Americans
do not have a bank account of any kind, and only 48
percent of Hispanic families in this country own
their own homes. |
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Kenneth D. Lewis, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, Bank of America |
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The challenge before us is clear. We must accelerate
our efforts to open up economic opportunities in our
Hispanic communities. A top priority for Bank of
America is to bring more Hispanic families into the
banking system. Or, put another way, to bring the
banking system to more Hispanic families.
We do this by listening to our Hispanic customers
and by taking action to serve the Hispanic
community’s needs. For example, we were the first
commercial bank to introduce Spanish-language ATMs
and the first bank to offer a free international
remittance service, SafeSend. We launched Mexicana
Platinum Visa, a rewards-based credit card which
grants points that can be redeemed for free
companion travel tickets on Mexicana Airlines.
Forty-four percent of our banking centers are in
markets where the population is greater than 10
percent Hispanic, and we are building 50 percent of
our new banking centers in areas that serve Latino
neighborhoods. We are the number one lender to
Hispanic small businesses in the country. The entire
curriculum of our financial literacy
program—Financial Fitness for Life—has been
translated into Spanish. And during the last two
years fully 50 percent of our new hires are
bilingual.
This last point is about serving our customers, but
it’s also about providing opportunities for all
Americans to reach their professional potential.
Toward the end of my senior year in college in 1969,
I received several job offers from large, national
companies. In the end, I chose a relatively small,
regional bank in Charlotte called NCNB—now Bank of
America.
I chose it because the people I met there were
determined to beat the competition and grow the
company, and they placed none of the limits on their
own potential that others did. I chose it because I
recognized people who understood how to make winning
in business part of a broader agenda for the success
of their communities. And I chose this company
because I related to a group of people who believed
that hard work and results should be the sole
determinant of opportunities and rewards.
The result of inclusion and meritocracy is
diversity—not just of race, ethnicity, gender, or
sexual orientation, all of which are important, but
also diversity of thought, opinion, and
professional, educational or geographic background.
Building a team that is diverse on many levels gives
us diversity of perspective and leadership that
enables us to excel in today's fast-moving, complex,
demographically diverse marketplace.
Inclusion, meritocracy, and diversity, of course,
represent much more than just a business strategy.
They also represent a sense of fairness and equal
opportunity that are at the heart of the American
way.
A couple of years ago, Raul Yzaguirre, then
president of the National Council of La Raza, said:
“We believe that Hispanics share with all peoples of
the world a common heritage and destiny. Above all,
we have an unshakable belief that this nation’s best
days are ahead of us—that this nation will continue
to rise, and that Latinos will continue to climb.”
The vision that Raul expressed, and that the
Hispanic community offers to America, is the right
one. It is a vision of America in which all our
people have access to the tools and resources they
need, in which economic freedom and opportunity are
available to all, and in which all of us have an
equal stake in the American dream.
In this vision of America, Latinos in America
absolutely will continue to climb—and Bank of
America will be there every step of the way as a
partner to the Hispanic community. |
