"We provide a lot of guidance around how to market to this community, how to do outreach with partnerships and stuff in the community, how to adapt processes to serve these new markets … basically anything you can think of related to serving this market," De Dios said.

Currently the company is working with nearly 50 credit unions in various capacities to help them reach the Hispanic market. Coopera also partnered with the Cornerstone Credit Union League and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions for Juntos Avazamos, which means, "Together We Advance." Juntos Avazamos is a designation given to credit unions who are committed to serving and empowering Hispanic consumers. The program is just another way Coopera is helping to grow a market that De Dios believes will be a huge asset to credit unions – now and in the future.

"It has so many attributes that I believe credit unions need to continue to grow and invest in their future," De Dios said.

It's these steps forward that make it worthwhile for the CEO. Coopera is also helping credit unions reach the Hispanic market through the Coopera Prepaid Reloadable Debit Card.

"We saw, in particular, that first generation, unbanked individuals really needed an introductory tool to build a financial services relationship … it provides a nice tool for credit unions to offer someone who may not be quite ready to have that checking account," De Dios said.

Credit unions are facing regulatory pressure, consolidations, mergers, an aging membership and slow membership growth, De Dios noted. She believes that these symptoms can be addressed by serving an untapped and growing market like the Hispanic market, which she said is the largest, fastest growing, youngest and one of the most financially underserved groups in the U.S.

De Dios believes there's a huge growth opportunity in the market and a study released in 2014 indicated she might be right.

CUNA and Coopera teamed up to complete a return on investment study of a Hispanic outreach program on 86 credit unions. The study assessed credit unions three years prior to and three years after implementation of a Hispanic outreach program.

The study showed an increase in loan growth and an increase in average return on assets ratios in the post period compared to the prior period. Membership growth accelerated by 3.02 percentage points, from a 2.07% growth rate in the prior period to 5.09% in the after period.

Overall, the Hispanic outreach programs were effective in growing credit unions.

However, getting credit unions to realize the growth opportunity can be challenging. There are cultural barriers and preconceived notions that often present challenges, De Dios said.

"At times there's still fear of the unknown, questions around fear of the unknown and questions around what it means to serve segments of the population. We share a lot of stories and best practices of credit unions that have been doing this for years and [these credit unions] continue to be successful and some of the fastest growing too," De Dios said.

One of Coopera's tools in overcoming these challenges is educational training.

De Dios recalled an experience she had in which she completed an educational training with credit union board members and management-level employees regarding the complexities of the immigration process. One of the board members of the credit union approached De Dios and said she was nearly moved to tears when hearing about the complexities of the immigration process.

"They said, 'I had no idea, I thought it was as simple as coming to the country, and you could go get a Social Security number.' It completely just changed her perspective," De Dios said.