CBA Members Honor Older Americans Month

Banks Provide Financial Education, Account Perks and Host Community Initiatives



Washington, D.C. (May 5, 2014) – Members of the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) are displaying their commitment to our nation’s senior citizens throughout May, recognized as Older Americans Month, and around the year with an array of programs and benefits. Among the initiatives carried out by CBA members include: financial education, free checking accounts, volunteer events and investments in housing developments. 



“We are proud of our banks and their work on behalf of seniors during Older Americans Month as well as throughout the year. Banks are an integral part of our nation’s communities and they recognize the importance of honoring senior citizens,” said CBA president said CEO Richard Hunt. 

 

A few of the programs offered by CBA member banks to older Americans:



Associated Bank

Associated bank offers the Senior Savings account for customers, 55 years and up. Benefits Include: no minimum balance requirements, no monthly maintenance fees, and free ATM access at more than 20,000 surcharge-free network ATMs.



Bank of the West

Bank of the West has a webpage of helpful tips and best practices to help prevent elder and dependent adult financial fraud. 



Capital One

Capital One is making investments to develop and rehabilitate rental housing in communities throughout their footprint. One such development is the Overlook at Oxon Hill, Washington, D.C. which is a 12-story, 316-unit building for working families and seniors. In addition to the special attention paid to creating community spaces within the building, the developers instituted an unusual tenancy mix for this type of project and a first for the Washington, D.C. area: low-income senior citizens (those aged 62 and older) share the building with moderate-income working families. The senior units are on the lower seven floors, while the family units are on the top five floors. There are dedicated elevators to each section, meaning that seniors and families have separate elevators serving their respective section of the building.



Citizens Bank

Citizens Bank has a webpage of resources and tools dedicated to senior citizens and their families, to help them manage senior citizens finances. 



Fifth Third Bank

Fifth Third offers a website full of informative tips and best practices to help prevent elder financial exploitation and fraud. 



Huntington Bank

Huntington provides financial literacy materials, classes and facilitators to help communities better understand banking products and services, budgeting and credit. They have created a public service brochure to prevent predatory lending for use by affordable housing groups and senior citizens. The bank also supports the Dollar Energy Fund, a program that provides comprehensive utility assistance to West Virginia individuals, senior citizens and families in need.



IBC Bank

IBC engages with the community through its employee-driven “It’s a Brighter Christmas” program. During December, IBC Bank-Zapata employees raised funds to adopt nine families this past holiday season. An extension of the bank’s “We Do More” philosophy, the company began this corporate-wide initiative in 1995 as a way to help deserving families, senior citizens, and children enjoy the holidays and is championed by the bank’s Employee Advisory Board.



IBERIABANK

IBERIABANK employees volunteer with a number of community service programs across the bank’s footprint, including the Adopt-a-Senior programs of the Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana, which supports seniors age 60 and older who are living at or below the poverty level. The program offers a large box of food every month for one year, which supplements seniors' nutritional needs so they do not have to choose between buying food or other life sustaining necessities such as medicine, rent or utilities. Volunteers provide thousands of hours each year to pack boxes, manage distribution sites, transport food to outlying parishes and deliver the boxes. The program serves more than 1,400 seniors each month.



KeyBank

Since 2009, the entire month of May has been deemed “Key Salute to Community Service Month.” KeyBank employees are active community servants, and are found lending a hand in a variety of ways from assembling playground equipment to assisting senior citizens.



Regions Financial

Regions Financial supports affordable housing by investing in Low Income Housing Tax Credits, a financial mechanism that encourages private builders to develop new or rehabilitate existing housing for ownership or for rent. The bank’s $861 million investment in these credits has resulted in the construction or rehabilitation of more than 16,700 units of affordable single or multifamily housing.

Regions also invests significant resources with nonprofit organizations that develop special-needs housing for people with disabilities, senior citizens, workforces, and those in transition due to drug and alcohol treatment, homelessness, and other setbacks. 



Rockland Trust

Rockland Trust has committed to a multi-million dollar financing project for the Hannah B. Griffith Shaw Home for the Aged, a 40-bed residential care and 20-bed skilled nursing facility in Middleborough, MA.



U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank offers a Premium Checking account, which is interest-bearing and includes free checks, money orders and travelers checks, as well as a safe deposit box discount. For account holders 65 or above there are no monthly maintenance fees.



Webster Bank

Webster Bank is hosting special seminars for seniors and their families to help them understand, identify and respond to fraud.  They are working with senior centers and other groups throughout their four-state footprint to deliver free, helpful information and advice. These seminars are part of a year-long initiative by Webster to inform the public about this growing concern in the financial industry. A total of 80 seminars will be held. Two May 2014 events coming up include:

  • 5/14/2014 at 11 a.m. at the South Windsor Senior Center, 150 Nevers Road, South Windsor, CT
  • 5/22/2014 at 1:30 p.m. at The Village at East Farms, 180 Scott Road, Waterbury, CT

Wells Fargo

The Wells Fargo Housing Foundation contributes financial support to nonprofit housing organizations when Wells Fargo employees volunteer to help renovate or build a home for a low-income family. Extra funding incentives are tied to projects that use green building criteria or that renovate Real Estate Owned (REO) or abandoned properties, rehab homes for senior citizens enabling them to age in place, or help military families get their feet back on the ground.



About CBA

The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) is the trade association for today's leaders in retail banking - banking services geared toward consumers and small businesses. The nation's largest financial institutions, as well as many regional banks, are CBA corporate members, collectively holding two-thirds of the industry's total assets. CBA’s mission is to preserve and promote the retail banking industry as it strives to fulfill the financial needs of the American consumer and small business.