Ethnic banks in Hicksville attract South Asians

Kamlesh Mehta concedes that on price, Indus American Bank offers him nothing that he couldn't get at the big banks he and his Hicksville-based business, The South Asian Times, once used.

Nevertheless, soon after New Jersey-based Indus American Bank opened a branch in Hicksville in December 2008, he said, he happily moved his banking there for the sense of community and personalized service.

At Indus and its more established competitor farther south on Broadway, Habib American Bank, members of the large South Asian community in Hicksville are putting their money in banks that speak their language, literally and figuratively.

"I didn't get that from other banks," Mehta said. "Even if you'd been a customer for many years, if you wanted to cash a check, you had to show ID."

The sense of familiarity at Indus and Habib "makes a difference," he said.

Banks aimed at certain ethnic groups are common in New York City. Flushing and Manhattan, in particular, are home to dozens of banks serving Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Israeli and other communities.

But in the fractured patchwork of Long Island, a community like Hicksville, with its concentration of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants, makes it one of the few places where ethnic banks make sense. About 4,200 South Asians live in the Hicksville area, according to Akshat Kaul, manager of Indus' Hicksville branch.

Indeed, Habib's branch is next door to Patel Brothers, a large Indian supermarket. Indus shares a building with Royal Bakhara Grill, one of the area's dozens of South Asian restaurants.

"Our experience has been very positive, in some respects better than expected," said Saleem Iqbal, president of Habib, founded in 1983 in Manhattan. It now has about $588 million in assets and six branches in New York, New Jersey and California.

He said the bank attracts customers because its rates are competitive, but he notes that the branch is more intimate than most Long Island banks.

For Habib customers - often small businesses from the area - Iqbal said, the bank is "not so formula-based."

Hicksville was a logical place for Habib to expand, but Iqbal said the bank does not limit itself to serving only South Asian immigrants. "Our bank is pretty well diversified," he said.

Kevin Lenihan, president and chief executive of Indus, said it makes more of an effort to make residential loans than Habib, which seeks more business customers. Indus, founded in 2004, has $167 million in assets and three other branches, all in New Jersey.

Kaul said customers often can get an answer on a mortgage in a day, compared to 15 days at some larger banks. The bank also phones customers when it notices problems with their accounts, he said.

As much as convenience, Kaul said, the bank offers its customers a level of comfort they can't get elsewhere.

"When you come to this bank, you meet people who speak your language and understand your history," he said.

That's nice, said another customer, insurance broker Sardar Nasarullah, but it's not the main reason he switched his accounts to Indus.

"The main thing is the service," he said. "That's the most important thing."