Last month, experts from leading financial services, marketing, and media firms gathered to discuss the importance of the Hispanic consumer at the Banking on Latinos for Growth: Breaking the Code forum. The event, held at JPMorgan Chase’s global headquarters, attracted over 400 attendees.
I had the honor of kicking-off the agenda along with Carlos Hernandez, Head of Global Banking at JPMorgan Chase. To set the stage on why this event was so important, Carlos pointed out, “The GDP produced by Latinos in the U.S. in 2015 was $2.13 trillion. If it were an independent country, the Latino GDP would be the 7th largest in the world, larger than the GDP of India, Italy, Brazil or Canada. Our potential is limitless.”
Throughout the rest of the forum, speakers highlighted the reality that financial brands simply cannot succeed without including Hispanics in their growth strategies. Henry Agusti, EVP Digital Banking at Bank of America, simply stated,
“If we don’t grow with Latinos, we don’t grow at all. If we don’t win with Latinos, we don’t win at all. It is mission critical for us to be successful with this population.” – Henry Agusti, EVP Digital Banking at Bank of America
That declaration aligns with the findings from our Univision/Harris Poll Hispanic Financial Journey study conducted last year. My colleague, Juliana Gomez, Director of Strategy & Insights at UCI, shared some of the results from the study which explored financial attitudes and behaviors among Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers. One important difference is the longer lifetime value of the Hispanic financial customer. As Juliana said, “When you win over the Hispanic consumer you get them for life. They’re more likely to be extremely/somewhat brand loyal compared to non-Hispanics.”
Considering the population size, buying power, and value of the U.S. Hispanic financial customer, it’s not surprising that we filled JPMorgan’s headquarters to capacity. For more information on the event and additional insights on how you can win with Hispanic consumers visit: www.bankingonlatinos.com and follow @UCI_Insights.
