Washington, DC—NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today released this statement which it intends to present at Bank of America’s shareholders meeting on April 29, 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Bank of America has consistently outperformed its peers when it comes to responding to the interests of the Latino community,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “Bank of America has one of the best records on lending to Hispanics, has been an industry leader in remittance and other products serving the immigrant community, and is one of the few Fortune 500 companies to have elected a Latina to its Board of Directors.

“It is thus not surprising that Bank of America has been a major supporter of some of NCLR’s most important and successful initiatives. For example, it was a critical early investor in the NCLR Homeownership Network (NHN)—which currently operates in 50 sites—and today supports NHN’s major foreclosure prevention and mitigation effort. It was also the anchor investor in the Raza Development Fund, an NCLR support corporation and the nation’s largest Hispanic Community Development Financial Institution. Since 1999, Raza Development Fund has provided $400 million in financing to affordable housing, education, health, and other efforts.

“Certainly, no company is perfect, and when we’ve had differences with Bank of America, we haven’t hesitated to air our views. But these differences should not obscure the bank’s status as an industry leader when it comes to serving its growing Latino customer base. We urge shareholders to take these views into account in its deliberations,” Murguía concluded.

For more information, visit www.nclr.org

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