BUSINESS SECTION

Bank's business plan spurs local protest

By Ben Kelly and Ben Baeder

San Gabriel Valley Tribune Staff Writers 

 

WEST COVINA – August 26, 2005 - Eileen Olson has a bone to pick with Wells Fargo bank.

Despite being a longtime customer, the 80-year-old plans to take her business elsewhere if the bank does not stop allowing Mexican immigrants to open accounts using a matricula consular identification card.

Olson and about 20 others gathered Saturday morning outside the Wells Fargo branch on Barranca Avenue in West Covina, protesting the bank's recent practice.

"They give illegals advantages they don't give some citizens," Olson said. "It's not right. It encourages more illegal aliens to come."

A spokeswoman from Wells Fargo & Co. said the bank decided to start accepting matricula consular identifications in 2001, after police agencies in Texas reported too many Mexican immigrants were walking around with all their savings in cash.

"Some folks think we had this as part of the strategic business plan, but we did it in response to a community need," said Dolores Arredondo, the bank's vice president of multicultural communications in Los Angeles. "We actually did this in May 2001 after police in Austin, Texas, approached us asking us to find a way to work with people who were storing cash."

Later that year, former Mexican Ambassador Marta Lara of the consulate general of Mexico in Los Angeles asked the bank to do the same in this area, Arredondo said.

Issued by the Mexican government, the matricula consular card has been in use for more than a century and is how Mexico keeps track of its citizens abroad, according to news reports.

Wells Fargo branches accept the matricula consular card as a primary identification and require a second identification, such as a passport or Social Security number, before a customer can open an account, Arredondo said.

She said customers using the matricula consular card have proven to be just as reliable as customers who use other forms of identification.

"(Accepting the matricula consular card) had some resistance in a few communities, but it is part of our company's vision and values," she said. "We're committed to providing banking services to the entire community."

Saturday's protesters do not agree.

"We believe it is unsafe and unwise for people not from our country to bank in our institutions," said Robin Hvidston of Upland, who organized the protest. "We feel like (Wells Fargo) is putting our country in jeopardy."

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-- Ben Kelly can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2236, or by e-mail at svintern@sgvn.com. Ben Baeder can be reached at Ext. 2703, or by e-mail at ben.baeder@sgvn.com.

San Gabriel Valley Tribune article at: http://www2.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_2959991

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