Metropolis Reality Forums - Credit union defends accounts for undocumented

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 24^th, 2024, 12:05am

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Credit union defends accounts for undocumented ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   Credit union defends accounts for undocumented

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: Credit union defends accounts for undocumented (Read 415 times)

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
« on: Feb 2^nd, 2007, 8:09pm »

Quote

Modify

Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 30, 2007 07:25 PM

A restaurant chain with a store in Mesa offers to accept Mexican pesos for pizza and receives threats at its Texas headquarters.

The state's largest credit union is bracing for similar fallout as it begins marketing savings accounts to undocumented immigrants.

Officials at Desert Schools Credit Union say the potential reward - thousands of new customers - justifies the risk of angering a few customers. Ignoring the state's fastest-growing population could be the equivalent of corporate suicide, one business expert said.

Pizza Patrón, with one Mesa location, is in the middle of a two-month marketing campaign aimed at customers who traveled to Mexico for the holidays and returned with unspent pesos. It resulted in record sales and an enraged backlash from people who thought the company was pandering to undocumented immigrants.

Desert Schools Credit Union, with nine Mesa locations, is aware of the potential for similar backlash after word gets out about its new marketing effort, which courts immigrants to deposit funds in special savings accounts.

But to the financial institution, just like the pizza vendor, a marketing campaign that targets Mesa's estimated tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants just makes good business sense.

For many Valley companies, it's about a potential profit at the risk of inciting a political debate. As Pizza Patrón found out, it's hard to pursue one without affecting the other.

"Our entire brand is dedicated to making a deeper connection with the Hispanic community. That creates some opportunity for adversity in our business, but we think it's good business," said Andrew Gamm, Pizza Patrón's director of brand development. "Our brand targets the youngest, largest and fastest-growing segment of our population."

Desert Schools is targeting the same group, albeit with a more altruistic approach. It says that the interest-bearing immigrant-savings accounts, which require account holders to sign paperwork acknowledging that they're in the country temporarily, amount to a community service by providing a safe place customers can deposit money.

Emma Garcia, Desert Schools director of community development, said the credit union's savings account program provides a public service, but it is aware of the potential for backlash.

"We know that some of our members will have issue with it," Garcia said. "We think we're doing what's best for the entire community. We think its best for all our members that we do not have large amounts of cash out there. It's not going to in any way impact whether they decide to stay (in the country) or not."

That's not even the biggest hurdle Desert Schools has to clear when making inroads into the immigrant community. As a financial services provider, the credit union has to bridge a fundamental trust gap between a large entity and a population that inherently distrusts such companies, said Ruben Ramos, director of public affairs with Arvizu Advertising and Promotions.

"In many cases, those new immigrants have a distrust about these financial institutions. You've got to overcome this barrier of how do you even get them in the credit union or into the bank," Ramos said. "There's no such thing (in Mexico) as FDIC insurance or deposit insurance. . . . There's this misunderstanding or fear of the institution of the bank."

Ramos, a former chairman of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, worked with Bank One before joining the Phoenix-based marketing firm last summer and said bilingual employees and administrators are the first step in bridging that gap.

Once companies, whether they're selling pizza or savings accounts, cross that divide, they have to convince their existing customers, no matter what their backgrounds, that marketing to the growing Hispanic population is good for the community and good for business, Ramos said.

"We're not in the business of asking people what their immigration status is. We're in the business of providing financial services to individuals," Ramos said.

"Fundamentally, I don't see anything negative that might be associated with what the credit union is trying to do, if people have a broader context about what the alternatives are for this segment of the population."

Ramos noted the abundance of check-cashing and high-interest loan stores that exist in areas with heavy immigrant populations.

"Those alternatives don't serve our community well," he said.

The accounts have existed for years, but the credit union is stepping up the marketing.

"We think it's a benefit for people to have them in accounts instead of at home, or in their cars," said Garcia.

The credit union offers reassurances that account holders will still have access to the funds, even if they're deported, Garcia said, a fear that with the passage of legislation like Proposition 200 is becoming more prevalent within the Hispanic community.

"They're afraid that that institution will partner with the Department of Homeland Security and report to them who's in an undocumented situation or not," Garcia said. "We're not going to be required to notify an agency if we find out they're undocumented. We're not required by law to do that."

For Pizza Patrón, the decision was purely about profits, and by the chain's estimation, the controversial peso promotion ranks among its most successful ever.

The small pizza chain raised its national profile as more news outlets, bloggers and enraged citizens got wind of the story.

"If there wasn't any controversy linked to it, it obviously wouldn't have been as interesting, on the scale that it was," said Gamm, who noted that 31 percent of the stores have set all-time weekly sales records since the campaign began.

"We fully understand the reason it got the attention was because of the connection between Pizza Patron and immigration. We're OK with that. It wasn't our intention, it wasn't by design."

IP Logged

MediaScribe
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Keepin' it all together

Gender:

Posts: 2163

Re: Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
« Reply #1 on: Feb 3^rd, 2007, 12:12pm »

Quote

Modify

Private businesses can do whatever they want, but I will refuse to be a customer of any business who chooses profits over aiding and abetting criminals.

And no matter how wonderful someone is or how hard they work here or how bad they had it in their home country, if they came in here without going through the proper channels and procedure, then they are criminals. Not only that, but they are a slap in the face to every honorable, hard-working immigrant who did it the right way.

IP Logged

yesteach
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 10465

Re: Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
« Reply #2 on: Feb 3^rd, 2007, 12:40pm »

Quote

Modify

I have no problem with the Pizza place accepting pesos as well as dollars.. to me that's no different than businesses in Mexico or Canada accepting US currency. When you share a border, that's just good business sense. Accept the currency at the current rate of exchange. I mean, I'm Irish/Native American... could never be mistaken for being Hispanic... if I went to Mexico on vacation and had unused pesos, it might be rather nice to be able to use them here when I return home (the pizza headquarters and several stores are here in Dallas), that shouldn't be a problem. There's a ton of going back and forth between Texas and Mexico for shopping, vacation, etc.

However, the thing about intentionally setting up savings accounts for people that the businesses KNOW are in the country illegally? I think that should be considered a crime just as hiring illegal immigrants is , and they should be prosecuted in the same way.

IP Logged

There are only 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Bumper
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

A Virginia Member of the RED SOX Nation

Gender:

Posts: 2946

Re: Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
« Reply #3 on: Feb 3^rd, 2007, 1:18pm »

Quote

Modify

Man! I am so proud of you two! What excellent and logical viewpoints! It's a damn shame that our elected representatives don't exercise this kind of common sense.

IP Logged

If U R reading these old posts, know that we were once a great, active cyber-community, but as in all things..Time moves on. This is now a Ghost Town.

yesteach
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 10465

Re: Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
« Reply #4 on: Feb 4^th, 2007, 4:58pm »

Quote

Modify

ROFL.. there's a ticket for you... Scribe and me in '08... I think we could at least beat Ex-Isle!!... :laff:

« Last Edit: Feb 4^th, 2007, 4:58pm by yesteach »

IP Logged

There are only 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Isle_be_back
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 2270

Re: Credit union defends accounts for undocumented
« Reply #5 on: Feb 4^th, 2007, 10:48pm »

Quote

Modify

on Feb 4^th, 2007, 4:58pm, yesteach wrote:

ROFL.. there's a ticket for you... Scribe and me in '08... I think we could at least beat Ex-Isle!!... :laff:

Not if I get Bumper to run with me. Tongue

Just think of all of the Isle be back/Bumper stickers we can make. (Or would that be Isle be back/ Bumper bumper stickers?) Huh

IP Logged

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »