Bank of America - Employment

Asian Fact Sheet

From having opened the first branch in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1928 to serving customers through more than 200 Asian-designated banking centers on the west coast, Bank of America has demonstrated higher standards throughout the years in helping Asian Americans reach their financial goals.

As the second fastest growing cultural segment in the United States, with an estimated buying power of $255 billion¹ and a higher household income than any other ethnic group, the Asian population is a business priority for Bank of America, which already serves nearly 400,000 Asian households in California alone.

Here are some of the many ways Bank of America is delivering higher standards to Asian American individuals, families, businesses and communities.

In building on a heritage of service, Bank of America . . .

• Has operated a branch in San Francisco Chinatown since 1928 and in 1929 named an Asian American as its first female branch manager.
• Opened the first U.S.-Asia Banking Center in San Francisco to serve clients with trans-Pacific financial needs and is the only bank to provide cross-border financial services to Hong Kong. The center is staffed with relationship managers who speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin and other languages.
• Was the first bank to help rebuild Japan after the war. In 1945, when much of Europe and Japan were devastated, General Douglas MacArthur asked Bank of America to take a leadership role in helping rebuild Japan. The company sent a team of banking consultants to Japan and, two years later, opened offices in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Osaka to make loans and finance international trade.
• Was the first U.S. bank to offer Chinese check designs commemorating Lunar New Year.
• Was one of the first major banks to introduce Chinese-language ATMs.
• Was the first retail bank to launch a California Asian American television branding campaign targeting the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities.

In serving Asian American customers, Bank of America . . .

• Operates more than 200 designated Asian banking centers throughout California and the Northwest.
• In California alone, has more than 150 Asian-designated banking centers, in-language toll-free customer service assistance in Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean and 240 Chinese language ATMs.
• In the Northwest, has a Chinese Banking Team, the largest, self-made team of Chinese-speaking, client facing associates at Bank of America. Collectively, more than 30 members have expertise from all lines of business and speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Korean.
• Has been, and will continue to be, an industry leader in developing informational and educational materials, such as first-time homebuyers' guides, in Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.

In practicing culturally and ethnically diverse employment, Bank of America . . .

• Has consistently been ranked among Fortune magazine's 50 Best Companies for Asians, Blacks and Hispanics.
• Provides a $1 million annual corporate commitment to INROADS, which prepares talented multicultural students for careers in business and industry.

In building critical partnerships, Bank of America . . .

• Formed a partnership with Organization for a New Equality to further economic opportunity for women and people of color.
• Is a founding sponsor of New California Media, a network of more than 400 ethnic media organizations.
• Partners with the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce on its annual Chinese Lunar New Year parade, festival and Miss Chinatown pageant. In addition, the bank partners each autumn with the Chinatown Merchant Association in celebration festivities surrounding the Harvest Moon Festival.
• Provides annual grants to the Japanese-American Chamber of Commerce to support the Executive Development Institute, a management-training program for Asian American bankers. Several members of Bank of America Asian banking teams in the Northwest have attended the Institute.
• Partners with On Lok, a San Francisco organization that provides advocacy, housing, assisted living, health care and adult day care for Asian American senior citizens.
• Sponsors the Chinese-American Voters Education Committee (CAVEC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization in San Francisco that supports the enfranchisement of Asian Americans, particularly new citizens, into American civic, cultural and social life.
• Partnered with the National Conference for Communities and Justice (NCCJ) to underwrite a national survey called Taking America's Pulse II, designed to gauge Americans' perceptions and attitudes of race and discrimination. Through this $1.3 million grant, the company will work with NCCJ to develop programs in six key cities to address issues raised in the survey.

In developing vibrant communities, Bank of America . . .

• Helps celebrate Lunar New Year in the California and Northwest markets and has sponsored the Lunar New Year parade in San Francisco's Chinatown since the 1930s. Sponsorships typically include floats in the San Francisco and Los Angeles parades, special bank promotions and sweepstakes, a Lunar New Year calendar and distribution of red envelopes in Asian American communities.
• Supports and celebrates the Harvest Moon Festival, the Korean Chu Sok Festival and the Vietnamese New Year festival, Tet Nguyen Dan.
• Will continue its commitment to multicultural communities through donations and community development banking. In 2002, Bank of America Foundation contributed more than $77 million in cash to nonprofit organizations throughout the country in support of education, community development, arts and culture and health and human services.
• Provides financial support to the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco, the oldest Chinese hospital in California, which has provided healthcare services to the Chinese community since 1925.
• In 1998 pledged an unprecedented $350 billion over a ten-year period for community development lending and investment. To date, the company has delivered more than $167 billion to provide affordable mortgages, build affordable housing, support small business and create jobs in historically underserved and disadvantaged neighborhoods.
• Has consistently earned Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) ratings of "outstanding" for its efforts to meet the needs of underserved and emerging markets.
• Partnered with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and eight large American banks to provide loans and technical assistance to stimulate small-business formation and job creation in multicultural rural and inner city areas.
• Is ranked the top Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the country.
• Under its Multicultural Supplier Development Initiative has set an aggressive goal of spending 15% of its procurement dollars with businesses owned by multicultural, female and disabled individuals. The bank has spent more than $1 billion and received more than 60 regional and 10 national awards in recognition for its supplier diversity efforts.
• Helps build vibrant communities through the Bank of America Foundation, the charitable arm of Bank of America, by making grants to the following Asian organizations:
  • Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
  • Asian Neighborhood Design in both San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., which provides housing, job training, furniture/woodwork production and educational programs.
  • Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, to support the purchase of a new building that will accommodate the Center's expansion efforts in Southern California.
  • Chinatown Community Development Center, which provides affordable housing for low- to moderate-income communities in San Francisco's Chinatown.
  • Chinese Historical Society of America, which works to study, record, acquire and preserve artifacts and cultural items that have a bearing on the history of the Chinese living in the U.S.
  • Chinese Newcomers Service Center, which helps more than 30,000 people throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with employment, immigration issues, financial and medical information, income tax assistance, citizenship and computer classes.
  • East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, in support of Swan's Marketplace, a redevelopment project for an underserved area in downtown Oakland.
  • International District Village Square, a multipurpose facility in the heart of Seattle's Chinatown, also known as International District. Bank of America contributed over $100,000 to a building complex in which agencies provide human services, child care, health care and senior living assistance - as well as 57 units of affordable housing.
  • On Lok in San Francisco, which provides senior advocacy, senior housing and assisted living, health care and adult day care to Asian American seniors.
  • Portland Classical Chinese Garden, in support of a capital campaign to build a new garden in downtown Portland, Oregon.
  • Search to Involve Pilippino-Americans, in support of their community economic development programs.
  • Seattle Chinese Garden Society, in support of a capital campaign to build a new garden in Seattle.
  • St. Mary's Chinese Schools and Center, which is at the center of a San Francisco Chinatown redevelopment project. The complex of buildings includes: schools, as well as a parish, community center, senior housing tower and an underground parking garage that will facilitate access to the restaurants and shops in Chinatown, provide an economic boost to local business and assist with employment development.
  • Vietnamese Cultural House in Los Angeles, in support of the establishment of a Global Arts Museum in Pomona, Calif.
  • Wing Luke Asian Museum, located in the heart of Seattle's International District.

In helping children succeed, Bank of America . . .

• In 1999 pledged a $50 million, five-year grant to United Way of America to support the expansion of the "Success by 6" program throughout the bank's franchise. Success by 6 works with community organizations to assess child development needs and the availability of community services.
• Committed $3.2 million to the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) to create and implement Financial Fitness for Life, the most comprehensive personal finance curriculum for children in grades K - 12, including their parents.
• Has made grants to the following Asian organizations:
  • Asian-American LEAD, which offers English and homework support, arts and technology activities to approximately 40 students ages 6-14.
  • Chinese Mutual Aid Association, a literacy program for low-income Asian immigrant and refugee individuals in the Chicago area.
  • Family Learning and Resource Center at the Chinese-American Service League, which aims to improve childcare and parenting skills and promote good health/nutrition and home-based activities targeted to low-income Asian families in the Chicago area.
  • The Summer Youth Education program at the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles.
  • Leadership Enrichment Arts Program of Austin, Texas, which provides youth with tools for lifelong learning and success.
  • Stone Soup Fresno, which produces literacy instruction materials for preschool readiness programs for Southeast Asian refugee families.
  • Wu Yee Children's Services in San Francisco, Calif., which has a long history of offering pre-literacy programs for preschoolers and getting parents involved in reading to their children.

Chinese Banking Team/Northwest

The Chinese Banking Team in the Northwest is the largest, self-made team of Chinese-speaking, client facing associates at Bank of America. Collectively, more than 30 members have expertise from all lines of business and speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese.

First organized in Seattle in 1995, the team is self-managed and elects its own president and officers throughout the Northwest. Four Chinese-focused banking centers - two in Bellevue, Wash., and two in Seattle, provide comprehensive service to affluent Chinese-American clients.

"The Chinese Banking Team is staffed to meet the full range of Asian American clients' financial needs, from sophisticated investments to general banking," said Chuck S. Lin, one of the founders of the Chinese Banking Team. "We work to identify and mentor new Chinese-speaking associates. We partner with the Bank of America Foundation in performing volunteer outreach services to Seattle's Asian American community. And we refer business among the Chinese Banking Team members across all lines of business to meet our clients' needs and deepen relationships."

U.S.-Asia Banking Center

The U.S.-Asia Banking Center is the first banking center of its kind, designed exclusively for people with financial needs in both the United States and Hong Kong. The center offers services to help customers manage trans-Pacific finances with ease and convenience. Staff members at the U.S.-Asia Banking Center specialize in U.S., Asia and cross-border transactions and speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Customers can access comprehensive services, such as:

• Apply for new checking, savings, and time deposit accounts
• Apply for financing, lines of credit and mortgages
• Transfer funds between countries and accounts
• Send and receive wire transfers
• Access both their U.S. and Asian accounts

U.S.-Asia Banking Center — San Francisco
50 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
Business Hours: Monday - Friday
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. (Pacific Time)
1.415.772.8888

U.S.-Asia Banking Center — Milpitas
20 Ranch Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
Business Hours: Monday - Friday
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. (Pacific Time)
1.408.945.2131

Tradition of service to Asian-American communities took root in San Francisco

Bank of America began serving Chinese-American communities in the San Francisco Bay Area when Herbert Hoover was president of the United States. At the same time, the Ruxton luxury automobile was rolling off the assembly line of a company called New Era Motors. A journey between California and New York could be accomplished in just 13 days.

A great deal of thought and planning went into the bank's first banking centers in Chinatown, as noted in a February 1930 issue of an American Bankers Association publication. "If the bank were located in Shanghai or Canton it could not be more typically Chinese in architecture and interior decoration," according to the article. "Altogether, it is a unique bank, a striking example of Oriental beauty. Alongside the most modern tabulating machines are the brushes and ink pots of the style that have been used for centuries to draw involved Chinese ideographs."

The names of bank tellers were inscribed in Chinese at their windows, information about the bank's financial services was printed in both English and Chinese and wall clocks featured Chinese figures. Bank of America also provided the Chinese Abacus as an added convenience for customers who used it for their mathematical calculations.

What Bank of America began almost eight decades ago continues today as the bank provides printed information and telephone banking services in Chinese and a host of other languages. In addition, ATM screens in various neighborhood locations feature a Chinese language option.

Giving a red envelope

One of the traditions of Lunar New Year is for members of the older generation to give small red envelopes containing money or gifts to members of the younger generation, as well as to friends and family. As a gesture of goodwill to the Asian community, each Lunar New Year Bank of America supplies these red envelopes as well as colorful calendars for distribution.

Year of the Ram

Bank of America kicked off its 2003 Lunar New Year Campaign in January with the gift of a 24-karat commemorative Year of the Ram gold coin for existing or new Prima/First Choice Gold checking account customers in California, Washington and Oregon who open an 8-month CD with $18,888 or more. The promotion ran at participating banking centers through Feb. 28.