BPABank, the American subsidiary of one of Portugal’s biggest banks, recently opened a branch at the Big Y Supermarket in Springfield.

As more American-based banks reach out to ethnic and minority clients by introducing foreign-language Web sites, some international banks establishing roots in the states are shunning the native tongue in an effort to attract American clients.

The addition of foreign-language banking Web sites is a continuing trend as larger banks attempt to lure customers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, but foreign-based banks, including one that recently established a presence in the Bay State, are keeping all things English.

BPABank, the American subsidiary of one of Portugal’s biggest banks, is opening branches in Massachusetts and has condensed its Portuguese name – Banco Portugues Atlantico – to better appeal to its American clientele.

“[In America], BPA is just another three-letter word,” said Pedro J. Belo, BPA president and chief executive officer. “It appeals to the Portuguese because they know what those letters stand for, but to others … it doesn’t identify us as an ethnic group.”

Belo said the bank, which has $208 million in assets in the United States, was careful not to be perceived as an ethnic bank when it entered the Northeast market and has no plans to introduce foreign-language Web sites to its existing Portuguese-speaking customers.

BPA recently opened a branch at the Big Y Supermarket in Springfield and plans to expand into New Bedford, Fall River, Swansea and Cambridge throughout the year, with additional plans to create a 60-branch network from Massachusetts to New Jersey that will give BPA a “a very large investment for a community-based bank,” said Belo.

In contrast to BPA’s strategy, many domestic banks competing for market share in the Bay State, the addition of foreign-language Web sites and bilingual staff is the next step in expanding bank business.

Larger banks, including FleetBoston Financial and Citizens Bank, have offered Spanish-language call centers and touch tone banking since 2001, but the addition of a Spanish Web site for online banking services is the latest step toward reaching a broader ethnic audience at both institutions.

“We’ve been taking our Hispanic market strategy step by step,” said Karl Felson, spokesman for Fleet Bank and manager of corporate communications for the bank’s Northeast region. “The Spanish Web site was the next logical step and it complemented what we had in place already.”

Many banks currently publish Spanish-language advertising and offer bilingual branch staff in or near Hispanic communities, but the latest trend in offering banking products to foreign-speaking clients is through the Internet.

Fleet’s Spanish Web site launched earlier this month and Felson said the addition of the Web site as a convenience for the Hispanic community is “a necessary piece to the overall jigsaw puzzle,” of banking.

“The reason why we are concentrating on the Hispanic market is all in the demographics,” said Felson. “Look at the demographics in our footprint – Hispanics comprise 13.3 percent of Fleet’s overall [business] and 26 percent in Fleet’s urban areas. Hispanics comprise the fastest-growing ethnic group and [their] buying power is growing faster than any other ethnic group.”

Citizens Bank plans to launch its Spanish Web site in April and, according to Ray DeSilva, senior vice president and regional manager for the community at Citizens Bank in Massachusetts, the bank hopes to reach a larger audience with additional foreign language products.

“[In] Massachusetts … what used to be the minority population is now the majority,” said DeSilva. “We need to be able to touch all channels for our Spanish-speaking customers. If we speak the language of our customers, it gives us that much more opportunity to reach out to more clients.”

Shopping Talk

Belo agreed it is important to have foreign-language speaking and multilingual capabilities at the bank through bank staff, but said that the Web caters to a different clientele.

According to Belo, market studies have shown that heavy users of the Web are a younger generation and “very fluent in English,” and said BPA will reach a greater American audience with an English Web site.

All the while, larger banks are rolling out their Spanish Web sites aimed at targeting a greater foreign-language speaking clientele.

“We’ll be touting the Web site simply because, looking at things demographically, the Spanish population is considerably younger than the average American population and they tend to be Web-savvy,” said Felson.

Belo said that BPA eventually will change its name in the United States to one that, while even more recognizable to many of Portuguese descent, still will not be readily identifiable as a Portuguese-based institution to U.S. consumers. The bank, he said, must focus on wooing English-speaking customers to grow in the United States.

The new name, BCPBank, is a shortened form of Banco Comercial Portuges, BPA’s parent company in Portugal. The change will become effective in May and should appeal to Brazilian, Portuguese and American clients alike. The name change is designed to “increase the awareness of the parent company without losing market share in the [United States],” he said.

At Fleet and Citizens, plans to cater to ethnic and minority communities on a larger scale are already under way.

Altogether, Citizens bank employees speak 42 languages in various bank branches and, according to DeSilva, plans to extend that service to the Web site are in progress.

“We are looking to expand our Web services to other markets – for example, the Asian population [that is] very fluent with the Web,” said DeSilva. “We are really proud that we focus on our immigrant communities and do financial literacy training to those communities.”

Felson said the addition of the Spanish-language call center and Spanish brochures and literature have “certainly increased our customer base and we are getting more notoriety.”

In Massachusetts, ATMs and Portuguese and Spanish community newspapers advertise bank products and services and Felson said Fleet is also working on a small-business credit card aimed at Hispanics.

Recent policies at Fleet Bank allow for Puerto Rican driver’s licenses and Mexican Consular IDs to be used for account identification requirements and Fleet is preparing to offer a secured credit card with all support documentation in Spanish, in addition to the Acceso VISA Platinum card, which has features tailored to the Hispanic market.

Fleet plans to introduce a new secured credit card in branches on April 25. The credit card will be in collaboration with Spanish-speaking sales and service representatives and feature all documentation associated with the card in Spanish.

Ana Lopez, director of Affinity Markets, which develops strategy for ethnic markets, said the need for Spanish banking literature has increased.

“We found that the Hispanic market included many recent immigrants and there is a very strong need for financial literacy,” said Lopez. “The more complex the products are, the greater demand for documents in Spanish.”

Felson said an aggressive advertising campaign would be launched this spring and will have a “serious impact” on the Spanish-speaking community.

“We’ll be advertising in Spanish language media via print and radio … we will continue with other initiatives that we can add to [the Web site]. We are working on an international funds transfer product that would allow people to send money to their country of origin, and that will be launched late this year or early in 2004,” said Felson. “We’ve been taking all these small initiatives along the way and it’s reached a critical mass.”

Melanie Nayer may be reached at mnayer@thewarrengroup.com.