FirstBank inaugurates first Spanish banking center in Glenwood Springs
Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Andrea Teres-Martinez/Post Independent
FirstBank hosted the grand opening of its first Spanish Banking Center in Glenwood Springs on Friday.
The Spanish Banking Center is just one of now 13 multicultural banking centers in Colorado, California and Arizona focused on fostering financial independence. The centers are able to offer banking services in their customers’ preferred language by employing bilingual and Spanish-speaking staff.
“These branches are a place where customers can receive banking services in their preferred language with an understanding of their culture,” said Jorge Rojas Lopez, Vice President for the FirstBank Roaring Fork Valley Market. “We try to reflect the communities that we serve and we try to cater to the needs of our community.”
Several FirstBank employees at the center, from tellers to managers and lending officers, speak Spanish, according to a FirstBank news release. FirstBank Roaring Fork Valley Market President Dave Portman said that around 60% of the center’s employee base is Spanish-speaking.
“Language should never be a barrier in achieving your financial goals,” Portman said during the event.
Although the Glenwood Springs FirstBank branch has been operating for around 11 years, Rojas Lopez said the grand opening celebration represents the branch’s adoption of FirstBank’s multicultural initiative to provide accessible services to everyone in the community, an initiative first launched in 2019.
“We also know that our Latino (and) Hispanic populations in the Roaring Fork Valley are large, and they’re growing,” Rojas Lopez said. “We thought it not only made sense, but it was necessary to provide better access to banking and financial resources to our local and growing population.”
In addition to Spanish banking centers, FirstBank has also opened centers offering financial services to Asian and Black/African American communities, according to Rojas Lopez.
A mix of Glenwood Springs residents and community leaders attended the grand opening celebration, from elected officials to nonprofit leaders, as well as friends and family of FirstBank.
The event featured free food and refreshments from local vendors, raffle prizes and a ceremonial ribbon cutting.
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