Growing up as a child of a small business owner and Mexican immigrants helped guide Raul Anaya’s path to Bank of America, where he began his career in 1989. Today he is President of Business Banking and President for Greater Los Angeles. “I always remember my roots as the son of immigrant parents,” Raul said. “I view my success as an opportunity to pay it forward and to help others around me become better bankers, better leaders and better individuals.” One of the ways Raul is paying it forward is as member of the Hispanic-Latino Executive Council, which is comprised of the bank’s most senior Hispanic-Latino executives who help devise strategies to influence how the company advances outcomes related to talent, responsible growth, and social responsibility.
Investing in Hispanic-Latino teammates, clients and communities we serve
I always remember my roots as the son of immigrant parents. I view my success as an opportunity to pay it forward and to help others around me become better bankers, better leaders and better individuals.
We’re proud to be the bank of choice for Hispanic-Latino clients and businesses. About one in every three checking accounts opened with us are by Hispanic-Latino clients. In addition, we continue to support our Hispanic-Latino clients' financial wellness– whether that is through programs like Mejores Hábitos Financieros™ (Better Money Habits) where we provide free, online tools and education to help build financial literacy, by delivering complete investment and wealth management solutions or helping them grow their businesses.
We continue to invest in the Hispanic-Latino communities we serve and are delivering on our commitment to advance racial equality and economic opportunity for people and communities of color with a focus on affordable housing, health, jobs, and small business. Examples include:
- We committed $500 million in equity investments to more than 150 minority- and women-led funds. Of the funds we have currently in our portfolio, 21% are led by Hispanic-Latino managers.
- We’ve closed investments in 23 minority depository institutions (MDIs) and CDFI banks – for example working with Ponce Bank in the South Bronx which provides financial services to the Puerto Rican community.
- We’ve invested $60 million in BIPOC affordable housing developers, a first-of-its kind fund supporting Enterprise’s Equitable Path Forward initiative.
- We continue to partner with UnidosUS on the Latinos in Finance program and increased our investment in 2021 by $1 million to expand the program to 18 markets to help Hispanic-Latinos navigate career pathways in financial services.
- Through our $25 million signature jobs initiative, we are working with four Hispanic-Serving institutions, to up-skill and reskill Hispanic-Latino and Black individuals through partnerships with 21 higher education institutions, of which 10 serve primarily Hispanic-Latino Students, including Baruch - The City University of New York (CUNY); Arizona State University – Downtown Phoenix; University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras; and Florida International University.
- In partnership with 12 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and education firm EAB, we launched the Progresando initiative to help Hispanic-Latinos achieve upward economic mobility through careers in healthcare, while also helping to increase representation and address the shortage of culturally sensitive, Spanish-speaking health providers.
In the past two years, we’ve also committed $1.25 million to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, a national nonprofit supporting Hispanic American higher education providing scholarships, programs and support services to Hispanic-Latino students to acquire a college degree. And we also recently made a $500,000 two-year investment in Excelencia in Education, a Latina-led national organization working to accelerate Latino student success in higher education with a Latino lens.
America’s history has been written in part by the many contributions of Hispanic-Latinos and we are honored to support partners like the Smithsonian National Museum of American History where Raul serves on the board of trustees for the new National Museum of the American Latino in Washington DC. With a total gift of $2 million, Bank of America is a founding donor of the Molina Family Latino Gallery, the first gallery at the Smithsonian dedicated to recognizing and celebrating Latino history and culture. The gallery will serve as a focal point for Latino scholarship and is the first physical presence of the National Museum of the American Latino.
8/20/23
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