BERWYN, ILL. -- AztecAmerica Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AztecAmerica Bancorp, Inc., has announced the opening of its inaugural full-service banking center at 2136 South Oak Park Avenue, in the nearby Chicago suburb of Berwyn, Illinois.

According to President and Chief Executive Officer, Carlos X. Montoya, the new Bank will provide a full suite of FDIC-insured deposit products, which will be complemented by its residential, consumer and commercial lending services. While stressing that all individual and business customers will be warmly welcomed with quality customer service, AztecAmerica Bank will showcase a retail and business banking environment that will be distinctly appealing to Chicagoland’s rapidly growing Hispanic population. “AztecAmerica Bank is actively positioning itself as a unique financial services bridge for Hispanic-Americans, with the ultimate goal of helping individuals and families seamlessly enter the arena of modern American banking,” Montoya asserted.

“The introduction of personal and business checking, ATM banking, savings and money market accounts, money orders, cashiers’ checks and wire transfer services represents a natural evolution of product availability and service access for the multitude of Hispanic households and property owners whom AztecAmerica has historically serviced through its residential and multi-family lending unit, AztecAmerica Financial Services,” said Montoya.

“Historically, our residential mortgage credit scores have run substantially higher than conventional industry credit guidelines, so it makes perfect sense for us to expand our product offerings to these same households by providing basic checking, savings and cash management services,” he added. According to Montoya, the Bank’s key to success will be to continue to create a caring, consultative and convenient service environment where each individual is treated with dignity and respect. “At AztecAmerica Bank, our primary goal is to deliver a caring and consultative customer service interaction every time one of our customers, regardless of his or her financial standing, comes in contact with the Bank or its personnel,” said Montoya. He added, “Every single day, we are proving, through continuous product delivery by our residential and multi-family lending units, that Hispanics are highly creditworthy, exhibit very strong payment habits and are, to a substantial degree, readily able to document their loans to bank portfolio and secondary market investment standards.”

It has been well documented that currency exchanges, check-cashing operators and payday lenders have been the primary financial institutions for Hispanics. “We intend to raise the bar in terms of real customer service and support, so that other institutions, particularly the larger ones, will understand that it will no longer be enough to simply hire Hispanic or bilingual banking representatives,” Montoya asserted. “At AztecAmerica Bank, we’ve empowered some of the best retail bankers available in the market. Our Branch Manager and Assistant Branch Manager have over forty years of combined banking experience,” added Montoya, whose twenty-five years of banking experience includes his previous position as President and CEO of Republic Bank of Chicago ($700 million in assets).

AztecAmerica Bancorp was funded through a private capital raise that included investments from several banking concerns, including State Financial, Marquette National Corporation, FNBC of La Grange and New York-based investment services provider, Samuel A. Ramirez and Company. Prior to obtaining its commercial banking charter, AztecAmerica partially funded its residential and multi-family loan originations through $12.5 million in lines of credit provided by JPMorgan Chase (formerly Bank One), Marquette Bank and State Financial Bank. “We are particularly proud of the investment and credit support provided by these institutions; their respective leaders have shown extraordinary vision and tangible endorsement for the unique mission of AztecAmerica and its family of financial services providers,” Montoya added.