Independent Banker - January 2025 - 61

Laying the groundwork in
Minnesota's Hmong community
Stearns Bank is fostering trust, financial empowerment and meaningful relationships with Minnesota's sizable
Hmong community by establishing a branch in one of their cultural hubs. By Mindy Charski
n September 2024, St. Cloud,
Minn.-based Stearns Bank
opened a location that is designed
and run differently from any of
the $3.2 billion-asset bank's other
branches. It's a loan and deposit
production office in HmongTown
Marketplace, an indoor-outdoor
market in St. Paul, Minn., that has
become a cornerstone of the local
Hmong community since it was
founded in 2004.
I
Americans call Minnesota home. Out
of that number, roughly 36,000 live
in St. Paul, making it the city with
the largest Hmong population in the
U.S., according to 2020 census figures
shared by Mark Pfeifer, director of
programs at the Hmong Cultural
Center in St. Paul.
Stearns Bank recognized that
opening shop in the marketplace
would be an opportunity to become
a trusted partner for this flourishing
community, the marketplace's 110plus
small businesses and customers
from across the metropolitan area.
It's a sizable market. After the
Vietnam War, many Hmong people
began migrating to the U.S. as
economic and political refugees.
Today, about 95,000 Hmong
Name:
Stearns Bank
Assets:
$3.2 billion
Location:
St. Cloud, Minn.
A readily available resource
Stearns Bank is now a strategic
financial partner of HmongTown
Marketplace. Adam Gill, the bank's
senior product and innovation
brand manager, says the idea of
having a presence in such a special
gathering place emerged organically
in conversations with the market's
owner and operator, Toua Xiong.
After touring an available office
space and seeing its potential, the
community bank signed a lease and
put security and IT requirements in
place. Without a building to construct,
Gill describes the concept as a " much
cleaner and quicker build. "
The location isn't officially a
branch, since it doesn't have a
vault or bankers who can accept
cash, but it does have an ATM for
withdrawals and deposits. According
to Gill, " Every other [deposit and
loan] product, service, solution or
offering that you could imagine is still
offered. " The list includes domestic
and international money transfers
and wires, which many community
members use to send money to family
abroad or to import goods.
" It was more about
access and the
community knowing
how a bank like us
can help them. "
-ADAM GILL, STEARNS BANK
Stearns Bank's HmongTown
Marketplace location regularly
evaluates and introduces new
services and promotions for the
HmongTown office and customers.
Gill notes that many of its existing
offerings are new to these customers.
" It was more about access and the
community knowing how a bank like
us can help them, " he says.
Indeed, the office's customer
base includes people who he notes
" might have been mainly dealing
with cash, " as well as others who
are transitioning from past banking
relationships.
Stearns Bank is committed to
putting in the work to attract and
keep customers who may otherwise
have trouble accessing the banking
products and services they need.
" This is not, 'Oh, we do our big
launch, and we drop our mic,' " says
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