A new bank with a focus on small to mid size businesses and Latino owners opens its doors in downtown's financial district.

 Maria Contraras-Sweet spearheads a new bank project.

Across the street from The Original Pantry, in the financial district of downtown Los Angeles, a new sign has been engraved into stonewalls at 888 Figueroa Street, it reads PROMERICA BANK.

Promerica, like the grooves cut into the stone, hopes to become a permanent fixture of the financial community.  

According to their mission, they are here to provide leading edge financial products and services, tailored specifically for small to medium sized business, with a focus on the Hispanic business community.

The name Promerica was chosen to convey the three key tenets of the bank: entrepreneurial success that represents the PROmise of America, which in turn helps spur PROgress in America and serves the PROfessionals of America.

Sitting in a meeting room, with a view of the bustling construction close to the Staples Center, a discussion of business and growth takes on a higher relevancy.

“We’re the first, primarily Latino owned bank to start in Los Angeles in over 30 years,� said Eloy Ortega, President and CEO of the bank.

He said the bank is a brainchild of Maria Contreras-Sweet, former California Secretary of the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency. While at this position, Contreras-Sweet noticed how many Asian banks there were and how few Latino Banks existed. She also noticed how the Asian banks had a strong focus on serving their specific community.

That was when she got the idea to start a Latino bank. She got behind this idea and began discussing it with others. After much legwork and a solid force of investors, the process of opening a bank begun. All those involved knew a good team had to be put together.

In October 2005, Ortega was recruited.

“They were interested in me, not only because my last name is Ortega, but also because I have 30 years of banking experience,� said Ortega.

Ortega opened a bank in Santa Barbara in 2001, he has the experience needed to go from concept to opening the doors of a bank.

They raised 35 million dollars and opened their doors in November 2007.

Other Latino banks that do exist focus more on personal loans and property loans. The focus of this bank is: entrepreneurs- getting them credit and helping them expand and become more successful.

Ortega is amazed at what Latino business owners have been able to do with such limited resources. One business owner in particular was grossing over $25 million in one year without any traditional credit.

“This guy grew a business from nothing and he had not traditional bank credit,� said Ortega.

He said, even though the business owner was making a lot of money, he still had to turn down millions of dollars of work because he couldn’t handle the costs. He was restricted purely because he didn’t have a bank credit relationship.

Promerica hopes to establish themselves by helping people like that establish a relationship with credit.

“This isn’t a community bank that we are looking to open and flip and turn a profit. When you look at the folks that are involved in this organization, if they were doing it for money, they’d just keep doing what they’re doing; they make plenty of money doing what they’re doing. This is really, honestly, a commitment from the heart of all of these folks, to try to give back to the Latino community,� said Ortega.

He says the job of his management team is to fulfill the vision of this bank by serving the community within the purview of banking regulations.

“We can still do things, specifically for the Latino business man or woman, that they are not getting in today’s business environment,� he added.

He admits there are a few banks out there that have made strides in reaching Latinos.
But most banks think they just have to translate ads from English to Spanish and that just doesn’t always work.

Being a Latino bank does not limit them to only Latino customers. In fact, they hope to become a gateway to the Latino community for non-Latino businesses. By creating relationships of trust with mainstream and Latino businesses they can make introductions and connections that would benefit everyone involved.

If you have to label them they we would prefer to be considered a “gateway to the Latino community� not a Latino bank, a gateway that can flow in both directions, said Ortega.

They are looking to establish a business resource center that will become a centralized venue for classes and information sharing. They hope to partner with schools to include certificate programs for the business owners that have the basics but need to grow.

They also want to establish a micro-loan program for the high-risk entrepreneur.

Promerica made it’s home in the downtown financial district to show that they are a sound financial institution that is here to stay. They will be opening a satellite office somewhere east of the river soon.