Latino Group, Contending Bias, Protests at Union Bank

A small band of pickets waved signs outside a Union Bank branch Wednesday to protest bank loan policies that the group says discriminate against Latinos, blacks and women.

Members of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional staged the protest at the bank’s Main Street branch in Orange to pressure the institution’s Japanese owners to meet with minority leaders.

It was the second protest this week--the first was Monday outside a downtown Los Angeles branch--and the group promises to continue with weekly picketing at other sites until it can meet with top bank officials.

Hermandad asserts that the bank systematically mistreats Latinos and other minorities and women, charging that less than 1% of the bank’s loans go to Latinos.

But Union Bank contends that the Latino group has ulterior motives. The bank has sued Hermandad over the group’s failure to repay a loan issued under a $1-million line of credit. The suit was filed last October, the bank said, after it tried over a long period of time to collect the money.

“We fully and totally support the organization,” said Joanne Curran, a bank spokeswoman. “That’s why the loan was extended.”

But, she said, the group’s failure to repay the loan is being treated “like any other business loan when terms aren’t met.”

Nativo V. Lopez, the organization’s co-director, said that the bank changed the $1-million line of credit that Hermandad received in 1992 to a term loan. The bank said the loan agreement allowed such a change as part of collection efforts.

“Union Bank has a practice of being conservative to minority-based organizations and small businesses,” Lopez said.

“But in Japan, they have a much different policy,” he said. “They forgive [businesses] of their unpaid loans and usually have their interest rates reduced when they have financial difficulties.”

Hermandad has about 20,000 members in Orange County and a total of 75,000 statewide.