BUFFALO, N.Y. — M&T Bank is establishing a second multicultural banking center in Buffalo. On Thursday, the company announced it is launching 100 multicultural centers across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
The location at Tops Niagara will be joining the Grant Street location as a place where people can receive banking services in their preferred language from employees who are members of that community and understand the cultural nuances.
The new location in Buffalo will provide services in Spanish from bilingual employees and through M&T's translation assistance program.
The new multicultural center will also provide a place for networking and financial literacy classes, according to M&T Bank.
“As this nationwide demographic shift accelerates, our multicultural banking initiative will help us meet the changing needs of our communities,” said David Femi, head of Multicultural Banking & Diverse Market Strategy at M&T Bank. “With our recent designation of new multicultural banking centers, we are demonstrating our clear intention to be the bank for all communities.”
Customer provided data from the new center at 425 Niagara Street show that 26% of customers self reported speaking another language outside of English and 46% identify as Black, Latinx, Asian or Indigenous.
“This locally customized, empathetic approach will help families and neighborhoods have easy access to credit services – an important priority for us and the communities we serve,” Femi said.
To further help Spanish speaking customers, M&T Bank recently launched a Spanish-language website.
“Our multicultural banking centers are important community-gathering places for advice and guidance. Yet, with many customers embracing online and mobile banking tools, we’re also building new digital capabilities designed to provide meaningful experiences and serve essential needs in multiple languages,” said Mary Kate Loftus, director of digital banking at M&T.
Additionally., M&t Bank has updated its ATM network to provide service in Chinese and Korean. More than 16,000 ATMs now provide service in Chinese, Korean, Spanish and English.
