PLANO, Texas – A series of fiestas celebrating Mexican Independence Day at four Community Credit Union branches has helped kick off the credit union's Hispanic marketing initiative. "We realize that Hispanics in Texas have consistently been underserved in the financial market. Our goal is to educate this large segment of the population about the credit union philosophy of cooperation and our core values of equality, equity and mutual self-help," said CCU Vice President/Director of Marketing Wendi Costlow. CCU worked with an outside agency that specializes in Hispanic marketing to develop more opportunities to serve the growing population group. In addition to teaming up with several popular Spanish-language radio stations for the fiestas, the initiative includes educational radio and print advertising in the Dallas/Fort Worth Spanish-language media market, a Spanish-speaking call center queue, and strategically staffing branches with bilingual employees. "We believe that once our Hispanic neighbors hear about the financial service options available here they'll see the benefit of being a member," said Costlow. "We've been here for them – we were one of the first credit unions in the Dallas area to accept the Matricula Consular and now we're offering discounted rates on wire transfers to Mexico through Vigo." According to recent surveys despite more than 30% of Texans listed as Hispanic and the Hispanic population in the Dallas area nearly doubling between 1990 and 2000, only 41% of Hispanics have a checking account and only 5% have a mortgage.