SSRI/DuPRI Seminar Series ~ 'Robin Hood Banking and Diamonds in the Rough': Latino Ethnobanks, Federal Regulation, and Restricted Social and Economic Capital

ABSTRACT: Scholars question whether Latino, especially Mexican American, communities contain social, financial, and ethnic resources that foster mobility and integration. This research examines Latino ethnobanks in Los Angeles that are chartered by Mexican American elites. We find that Mexican American elites charter ethnobanks to make a profit, but they operate them within a "banktivist" model. They view Latino ethnobanks as community capital institutions that have the potential to grow the Latino middle class by providing access to capital for Latino entrepreneurs. However, a history of financial marginalization combines with historically contingent market conditions to create structural barriers to accessing credit, leading bonds of ethnic solidarity between Latino entrepreneurs and banks to dissolve. Seminar #4381