Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

LOS ANGELES—US Bank representatives took a tour of Historic Filipinotown and met with Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) offi cials to discuss ways the Fortune 500 company can help the Filipino American community.

Richard K. Davis, Current Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of US Bank and a few of his partners, visited and spent a few hours at SIPA headquarters on Thursday, April 2, to see "up close the great things that are happening here in Historic Filipinotown."

Davis was in Los Angeles to speak at Greenlining’s 16th Annual Economic Summit at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels.

The Asian Journal caught up with Davis at SIPA and discussed the importance of the banking industry to reach out to ethnic communities.

RD: I wanted to see some of the community activities that are supporting this great [Filipino] market. Historic Filipinotown is something that I have heard a lot about. [SIPA Executive Director] Joel [Jacinto] has spoken a great deal about it. Bob of Greenlining is also very supportive of this and he wanted us to see up close the great things that are happening here."

RD: Well, it’s a joint responsibility. You guys [Filipinos] need to tell your story better and we need to listen better. Days like today really move those things together. We had a chance to come out and see it first hand, we had a chance to have our attention completely focus on what your mission is, and now, we’ll be much more focused on helping in the future."

RD: It’s very important but it’s not just ethnic. Banks are supposed to be in the community. In the original days, 150 years ago, when banking started it was all about helping the community. Banks basically took money from customers that needed to be safely kept and would turn around and lend it to people who have a dream. And a 150 years later, here we are in different communities. What’s so neat about this and Historic Filipinotown and everything that you guys have all done is it gives us another place to find that core or that nerve center so we look forward to opportunities like this to get closer to communities and [the Filipino community] has done a great job creating a place to gather.

RD: We did [tour Historic Filipinotown]. It’s great. It seems to me you [Filipinos here] have a great opportunity to tell your story outside of Filipinotown… From what I understand this is the gateway for people as they immigrate into the states, they often come here to this community and what I would say to you is when they move out to the Greater Los Angeles County and Orange County and other places to keep coming back here [to Historic Filipinotown] as their place to keep connected.

RD: Well, I came here with the head of our business in California. We have a number of [Filipino] employees. So we are going to go back and learn more about our own involvement with the Filipino community, Filipinotown, and our own employees who are Filipino. We’ll take this as a learning step to see what we can do more for us, for you [the Filipino community] and together we’ll be better. (Joseph Pimentel)

( www.asianjournal.com )