The editors of American Banker will honor Luz Lopez Urrutia, president and chief operating officer of El Banco Financial Corp. in Roswell, Georgia with an 2006 Community Banker of the Year Award for Advocacy.

Twelve San Francisco-area financial institutions are using debit card-based accounts to encourage the city's un-banked to form banking relationships so they can avoid using pay-day loan stores and check-cashing services that charge high fees.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Treasurer Jose Cisneros unveiled Thursday the Bank on San Francisco program to encourage 'unbanked'city residents to open a bank account rather than rely on expensive check cashers.

Immigrant demand has staying power in a slowing market because new arrivals tend to be in the lower-priced market, which is less sensitive to rising interest rates

A key focus for Ned Bank in 2006 is its Bank for All strategy, aimed at improving access to financial services for the underserved consumer segment in South Africa.

Western Union CEO Christina Gold becomes the leader of Colorado's First Data Company.

A group of organizers is putting together a management team and raising money to launch what would be a first in North Carolina - a bank focused on building a Latino customer base.

part of a national effort on the part of rap and R&B stars to get people, particularly those in the black community, to think more about banking and how they save and spend money

Financial institutions are struggling to make inroads into the state's fastest-growing population that spends $3.5 billion in the state each year. To reach Hispanics, banks must earn the trust of illegal immigrants and of those who come from cultures where banking systems ...

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has released "Highlights From the Inaugural Underbanked Finan-cial Services Forum." The paper, written by Katy Jacob, CFSI's research director, discusses the key themes that emerged from the forum, which CFSI co-produced with SourceMedia [The Credit Union ...