Menendez Meets Prominent American Latino Business Leaders to Discuss Economic Empowerment and Integration for Latino Community

Washington - Yesterday, Senator Bob Menendez, Co-chair of the Senate Democratic Hispanic Task Force and member of the Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, hosted a forum with the New America Alliance, an organization comprised of nearly 100 prominent American Latino entrepreneurs, professionals and business leaders from across the country. The forum provided Senate Democrats an opportunity to begin a comprehensive dialogue with Latino business leaders regarding access to capital, lending issues, banking and corporate board diversity - issues critical to the economic empowerment and integration of Latinos in this country.

"Senate Democrats understand that we need to ensure that Latinos are actively engaged in the economic prosperity of this nation, their families and communities," said Sen. Menendez. "As the Latino purchasing power continues to grow to $1 trillion in 3 years, we need to make sure that Latinos are not only participating in our economy as consumers, but also as investors in our markets, as decision makers on our corporate boards, on Wall Street, and in small businesses across the country."

"This dialogue with Latino business leaders is important and will be ongoing because a great deal is at stake. When we remove the barriers and encourage our communities to build wealth, our middle class grows and our economy prospers," said Menendez.

This year, it is estimated that Hispanic buying power will be $863.1 billion, an 8.1% increase over 2006. This marks the first year that Hispanics control more disposable personal income than any other minority group. However, Latinos are more likely to be "unbanked," or without a bank account, than any other ethnic group. While the number of companies with Latino directors across a wide range of industries has grown 186 percent since 1993, Latinos still hold less than two percent of all board seats in Fortune 1,000 companies and just 3.1 percent of board seats of Fortune 500 companies as of 2006. There are more than 1.6 million Latino-owned businesses contributing $222 billion to the economy, making Latino-owned businesses one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. economy. However, on average, for every dollar a non-Hispanic white-owned firm makes, Latino-owned businesses make about 59 cents.

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