RGV bank to represent minority institutions on Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation subcommittee

Last Wednesday, Alamo-based Freedom Bank nationally represented the Rio Grande Valley after its CEO entered a subcommittee for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Arturo ‘Art’ Ortega, CEO of Freedom Bank, one of four new members inducted into the Minority Depository Institutions Subcommittee (MDI), met with current members in Washington, DC, to discuss opportunities and challenges for minority banks.

Ortega is one of nine representatives on the committee, with some representatives hailing from across the nation, as far as Honolulu, Hawaii to Flushing, New York. The Freedom Bank CEO will have the opportunity to not only represent the Rio Grande Valley, but the entire state of Texas at bi-annual meetings in Washington, DC to preserve and promote MDIs.

“The minority deposit institutions FDIC subcommittee is designed so that financial institutions throughout the United States can have a say so at a big level, or at the executive level for the FDIC to represent areas that are underserved or economically disadvantaged,” said Ortega. “By them listening to banks such as Freedom Bank, they understand what it is that we do.”

Ortega voiced the regional market strengths in South Texas and the programs the MDI initiative provided that help banking stay competitive in the region.

“The Valley is so economically robust,” said Ortega.

But that doesn’t mean that the Rio Grande Valley doesn’t have its economic challenges, such as financial literacy availability to the youth and community.

The CEO explained that financial literacy has been a concern for RGV residents for decades due to the low-income population. Whether it is low-income students entering the workforce after graduation or residents not knowing of financial programs to build their finances – Ortega wants to bring more to the Valley.

“I think over the last 20 years, we have gotten exponentially better. However, it continues to be there. It never completely stops being an issue,” he said. “But…We’ve got to continue pushing those opportunities so we can reach even bigger populations and diminish the percentage that don’t have a financial literary aspect to their background,” he said.

Ortega continued, explaining the FDIC’s role in supplying aid to minority-owned financial institutions.

“The FDIC through the MDI effort provides us minority-owned institutions a lot of different resources that we can tap into, some at no cost to us,” said Ortega, explaining that the FDIC provides resources to minority-owned institutions. “That is the message that we take. We tell them what the challenges are, but also explain to them what their efforts – the FDIC – are doing to have an impact.”

Ortega and Freedom Bank’s representation could improve financial literacy and opportunities not only for the RGV but Texas as a whole.

“It’s important that South Texas and Texas throughout, and all minority-owned banks, have somebody that can raise those – not just concerns – but benefits that come through participation in the MDI efforts,” said Ortega.