support Latinx communities through your deposits
Although there were a lot of promises made to immigrant families during Biden’s campaign, it seems that nearly nothing has been done to roll back Trump-era immigration policies. Although ICE arrests are down, and there were fewer detained immigrants in 2021 than any year since 1999, Biden has been highly criticized in the media for using the COVID pandemic as a reason to turn away asylum-seeking individuals at the Mexican border. However, illegal immigration is still on the rise while Democrats in the Senate struggle to pass any legislation which would provide a path to citizenship.
Considering this and the strains the pandemic has put on all of us, it’s more important than ever to support Latinx American banks, as these populations are at greater risk for being underbanked and unbanked. Latinx American banks provide essential banking services to communities which have little reason to trust institutions run primarily by white people. They also often provide those services in Spanish.
Below is an alphabetical list of all of the Latinx Majority banks in the United States, whether majority is in their membership or their ownership. We would not consider all of these banks to be Better Banking Options, simply because their quality lending isn’t high enough. However, they all make the effort to specifically cater to populations at risk of being under and unbanked. We’ve highlighted our favorites, based on lending data and our metric, below.
- Apollo Bank (Miami, FL)
- Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (San Juan, PR)
- Banesco USA (Coral Gables, FL)
- Bank of Grand Lake (Grove, OK)
- Centinel Bank of Taos (Taos, NM)
- Citizens State Bank (Roma, TX)
- Commerce Bank (Laredo, TX)
- Commercial Bank of California (Irvine, CA)
- Community 1st Bank Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NM)
- FirstBank Puerto Rico (Santurce, PR)
- Freedom Bank (Freer, TX)
- InterAmerican Bank, A FSB (Miami, FL)
- International Finance Bank (Miami, FL)
- Lone Star National Bank (Pharr, TX)
- Ocean Bank (Miami, FL)
- Oriental Bank (San Juan, PR)
- Plus International Bank (Miami, FL)
- Ponce Bank (Bronx, NY – CDFI) Our article on them
- Popular Bank (New York, NY)
- Rio Bank (McAllen, TX) Our article on them
- Sunstate Bank (Miami, FL)
- Texas National Bank (Mercedes, TX)
- U.S. Century Bank (Doral, FL)
- United Bank El Paso Del Norte (El Paso, TX)
- Zapata National Bank (Zapata, TX)
Online banking options are available at all of the above institutions, so you don’t even need to live near one of these banks for your deposits to be put to work in Latinx communities. To learn more about why banking Latinx Banks and other Minority Depository Institutions are so essential, read our article on MDIs here.
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