LULAC and CEAC Form National Partnership to Promote Minority Access to Credit, Financial Literacy

Posted on: October 20th, 2008
Filed Under: [ Press Releases ] [ Your Money ]
Tags: LULAC

Today, Citizens for Equal Access to Credit (CEAC), a diverse, multicultural nonprofit coalition, announced that the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was joining CEAC. LULAC, which is America’s largest and oldest Hispanic organization made the decision to join CEAC by a unanimous vote by its Board at its recent meeting in Washington D.C. The two groups plan to undertake several important initiatives to promote access to credit in the Hispanic community including a series of financial literacy events in communities across the U.S. as well as educating decision makers on the importance of remaining sensitive to historically underserved consumers in today’s credit crisis.

“We are very pleased to welcome LULAC as the newest member of Citizens for Equal Access to Credit,” said CEAC Executive Director, Javier Cuebas. “LULAC’s extensive outreach and network within the national Hispanic Community and its long standing commitment to promoting fairness and economic well being for minority communities will allow us to take our efforts to promote financial literacy and minority access to credit to a new level.”

“Promoting and protecting economic opportunity for our members and providing the capabilities for them to succeed in today’s marketplace is a top priority for LULAC, especially in these challenging times,” said LULAC Executive Director, Brent Wilkes. “It is vitally important that decision makers understand that as they move to protect consumers, they must also protect fair access to credit in minority and underserved communities.”

The two groups plan to undertake a series of financial literacy events in selected communities across the U.S. in the coming months. CEAC and LULAC also announced joint efforts to educate decision makers at all levels of government about the importance of protecting minority access to credit.

“It has been estimated that over 70 million people in the U.S. today would not qualify for a “prime” credit card, placing them in the “subprime” category,” said Cuebas. “As Congress and the Federal Reserve Board continue to take important steps to protect consumers it is essential that decision makers understand the real life impact of their every aspect of their proposals to avoid harming the very people they are trying to help.”

LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

Historically, LULAC has focused heavily on education, civil rights, and employment for Hispanics. LULAC councils provide more than a million dollars in scholarships to Hispanic students each year, conduct citizenship and voter registration drives, develop low income housing units, conduct youth leadership training programs, and seek to empower the Hispanic community at the local, state and national level.

Citizens for Equal Access to Credit is comprised of past and present low limit credit card customers, leading national minority organizations, providers of low limit credit cards, Chambers of Commerce, small business associations, and groups and individuals from across the nation. For more information about the coalition and its membership go to Our Members Page.

Citizens for Equal Access to Credit seeks to create a positive dialogue between leading national organizations representing minorities and other key stakeholders to promote positive change in our credit market. The organization recently released a study that provided data on the use of low limit credit cards which can be found here.

CEAC also recently announced a Code of Fair Practices for the Low Limit Credit Card industry and as Statement of Principles for Credit Card reform. To read the Statement of Principles and Code please go to www.equalaccesstocredit.org .”