Wealth is soaring among fast-growing Hispanics — yet 56% have no bank accounts

When National City Corp. bank decided to roll out 78 new branches in Chicago two years ago, it went in knowing its market. With Hispanics expected to account for virtually all of the city’s population growth over the next decade, the bank hired dozens of Spanish-speaking staffers and printed thousands of glossy pamphlets, hawking savings accounts to new immigrants and explaining the benefits of IRAs to more established Latinos. This year, the nation’s 10th-largest bank will double its Hispanic marketing budget, targeting middle-class Latinos with direct mail offering mortgage financing and money-market accounts, all written en español. “A simple hello in Spanish,” says Christian Sandoval, vice-president of Hispanic marketing at National City, “can open the door to a Hispanic better than a product with a 4.5% interest rate.”

From Bank of America Corp. (BAC) to Banco Popular, tapping into the growing Hispanic market is increasingly key for U.S. financial institutions. Indeed, U.S. banks may soon go on a shopping spree in search of smaller regional players with ties to Latino communities. They’d better hurry: Foreign banks such as Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria have already snapped up banks in Texas, California, and Florida. Now, predicts Jack M. W. Phelps, senior financial analyst for the the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., “we’ll see domestic banks buying small Hispanic-oriented banks to acquire their skills.”

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