Too many requirements. Too many fees. Too long to get at their money. Many Latinos want nothing to do with traditional checking and savings accounts. But area banks see a tremendous business potential in the community and are doing all they can to bridge the cultural divide.

By Denise Trowbridge and Stephanie Czekalinski

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Banks are busy translating brochures into Spanish and working with community groups to draw members of central Ohio's fast-growing Latino population into the financial mainstream.

Yet many Latinos are still saying "No, thank you" to traditional banking services.

Juan Josequera, of Guanajuato, Mexico, uses Columbus-area check-cashing stores four times a month because "banks just aren't clear" about fees.

Jose Antonio, of Oaxaca, Mexico, uses check-cashing stores to cash checks and buy money orders to pay bills, because "there are only some banks that will accept an ID from Mexico."

Juan Munoz, 34, of Tepic, Mexico, uses check cashers because he doesn't like having to wait for his check to clear. "The bills aren't going to wait two days for the banks."

About 60 percent of recent Latino immigrants are "unbanked," an industry term meaning that they do not have a checking or savings account, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The agency estimates that 10 percent of Americans don't have bank accounts. Most are minorities, recent immigrants and people with low incomes.

Many more have a bank account but still use services such as check cashers or payday lenders.

As recently as the 1990s, banks shied away from these types of consumers, believing that there was no profit to be made in serving them. But there's been a change.

Now, banks see "tremendous business potential in serving these communities," said Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the FDIC.

Not only are their numbers growing, but they have spending power.

About $18 billion is wired annually to Latin America, with $9.5 billion to Mexico alone. Latinos' disposable income is projected to exceed $600 billion this year, according to BankersOnline.com.

The number of people from Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela living in Franklin County also is growing, by 39.2 percent from 2000 to 2004, according to Community Research Partners, a nonprofit research center based in Columbus.

"At the end of the day, we need to attract them if we're going to keep our doors open," said Reggie Thomas, community-development manager at Huntington National Bank.

"We're all going to run out of the top-tier customers that we think will walk in and get a mortgage, auto loan, checking and savings accounts, and CD all at one bank."

In an attempt to bring the immigrant population into the fold, National City and Chase banks now allow people to open accounts with matricula consular, an ID card issued by the Mexican government to Mexican citizens living in the U.S.

About half of Latino immigrants in central Ohio are from Mexico.

Fifth Third Bank is distributing DVDs of a Spanish-language soap opera designed to teach personal finance.

Huntington is working with community groups such as Centro Esperanza Latina, a nonprofit providing education and social services to Latinos in Columbus, to gain a foothold in the community.

But persuading people, particularly Latinos, to open bank accounts is not easy.

Cultural differences are a significant factor, said Rebeca Vargas, senior vice president and marketing director for Chase.

Many Latinos "didn't have bank accounts in the countries where they came from and neither did their friends and relatives. They were paid in cash and paid for everything in cash.

"The truly unbanked aren't even shopping for one," she said, because they have figured out ways to live without a bank.

Many also feel that banks are for the rich and think, "I am not welcome. They don't speak my language and I'm intimidated so I shouldn't even try to go in," she said.

Check-cashing stores can be much less intimidating.

Angel Solorzano, a 19-year-old from Acapulco, Mexico, who's been in Columbus for a year, likes that the cashiers at the check-cashing store are Latino.

"Latinos prefer to come here for two reasons: One, we speak the language, and, two, they can take care of everything here -- cash a check, send money to Mexico or anywhere in the world and pay bills," said Eva Espinosa, manager of Columbus Check Cashers Inc. on W. Broad Street.

"You can't necessarily do all of those things at a bank," said Cynthia Vega, spokeswoman for the Financial Service Centers of America, a trade group representing check-cashing services.

These are the kinds of transactions that are the very core of the financial lives of those who don't want or have traditional bank accounts, Latino or not, she said.

Banks, for the most part, aren't interested in transaction-only business for people without accounts, Vargas said. "We're not competing with the Western Unions of the world."

But banks are going to have difficulty bringing these people in if they focus only on getting them to open accounts, said Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection with the Consumer Federation of America.

"Maybe (a person) starts today by cashing checks, but then, someday, they'll need a loan."

But bank accounts aren't right for everyone, Vega said.

Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and having instant access to their money is very important, she said. After the bills are paid and money is wired to their family members, they often don't have anything left to keep in an account.

Still, the unbanked need access to low-cost financial services.

Critics contend that check cashers and payday lenders charge exorbitant fees.

Payday lenders charge about $15 for every $100 borrowed, according to the Community Financial Services Association of America. The fee to cash a check is about 1 percent to 3 percent of the check amount.

Meeting the needs of unbanked Latinos means more than translating brochures into Spanish.

The challenge for financial institutions is to alter their business models to accommodate the approximately 40 million people in America who are on the financial fringe, Vega said.

"We've got to push past our comfort zone and ask, 'Can we do more? Can we do transactions?' " such as wire transfers and cashing checks for people without accounts, so that they're more comfortable with banks, Thomas said.

"With education, with patience, maybe we can get them to be mainstream-type customers."•