Norwest banker provides link to East St. Paul's Hmong community

Northwestern Financial Review, Apr 4, 1998 by Mattson, Beth

Kou Vang often wears the hat of both banker and educator as manager of Norwest Bank's East St. Paul branch.

Vang has played a key role in accommodating the financial needs of a growing Hmong community in East St. Paul. Vang has been instrumental in educating the Hmong people, and he also has taught Norwest a thing or two about servicing the needs of Hmong customers.

Vang joined Norwest in January 1993. A native of Laos, Vang speaks English, Laotian, Hmong and Thai. Vang, his parents and nine brothers and sisters fled Laos after the North Vietnamese invasion in 1975. He lived in a Thai refugee camp with 50,000 other people for 12 years before coming to the United States in 1987. Soon after arriving in Minnesota, Vang enrolled at the University of Minnesota, and he earned a degree in business finance from the Carlson School of Management in 1992.

"The point that I try to get across, is that Kou was chosen to be the leader of the store not just because he's Hmong, but because he's a good banker," said Joan Grzywinski, a Norwest district manager for St. Paul banks and the south metro area. "He is the manager of a store that serves the needs of the entire area, including Hmong, but not exclusive to other customers' needs," Grzywinski said.

Introducing banking issues to the Hmong people has not been easy considering that the culture has traditionally been a cashless society. Vang has not only played an important role in educating the Hmong community on finance topics, but he also has helped to teach Norwest how it can better serve those customers, Grzywinski said. For example, Vang has encouraged Norwest to sponsor events within the Hmong community such as the Hmong New Year.

Vang is one of many Norwest bankers who are helping to break down the barriers Hmong people face in banking. Language is certainly one obstacle. Some ways that the Norwest branch overcomes the language barrier is by having a diverse staff, as well as signage and ATM machines that are in the Hmong language. Other challenges include education, developing relationships and making Hmong customers feel comfortable in a banking situation. "Comfort and trust are some of the key points, as well as reaching out to the communities and building relationships," Vang said.

"Hmong communities won't put money into the bank if they don't have someone they can trust working in the facility," Vang said. Putting Vang in the bank has made a significant difference for Norwest. "I personally came from a dignified family, a family that the Hmong people can trust," he said. Vang also is active in the Hmong community, and he has been recognized for his efforts by groups such as the Lao Family Community.

As far as procedural processes go, Hmong customers are treated no differently than any other customers. The trick is helping those customers to understand banking. "How we go about getting loans to the Hmong community is knowing how the system operates, and preparing the Hmong client to be ready for the banking system," Vang said. For example, Vang and his staff have been educating customers on the importance of building credit in order to secure a home or car loan in the future. Another area where Vang hopes to continue educating customers is on how to write a business plan. Vang also has a cable TV program that goes out to St. Paul's Hmong community, and one of the issues that he discusses is finance and banking.

Norwest is seeing the results of Vang's work. Individual loans to the Hmong community have exceeded $1 million in the last two years. Another indicator has been a growing volume of mortgages. When Norwest first introduced its Community Home Ownership Program a few years ago, mortgage sizes were in the $40,000 to $50,000 range among Hmong applicants. Now those loans are typically in the $70,000 to $80,000 range. "We're seeing a community that is more accustomed to mortgage debt, and can afford the higher values," Grzywinski said. Norwest also has seen increased Hmong interest in its investment management services, she added.

One of Vang's goals is to continue to improve loan generation among both Asian and Hispanic customers. "What I see, and what I would like to accomplish in the future is more like planting a seed. I know that many of the people we serve here, demographically, are from [low income] families. As we all know, the welfare reform system is going into affect, and more people will work. If we offer more services today, tomorrow when they have a job and more money, we would like them to come back to us," Vang said.

Vang lives in St. Paul with his wife Mai Lor, and their four children, ages 13,12, 8 and two months.