The U.S. mutual fund industry is doing little to increase diversity and hire more minority workers, a senior executive at boutique investment firm Ariel Investments said this week.“The fund industry has to make a real commitment, not lip service, to diversity. And really go out of our way to find people of color to work in our organizations,” Ariel president Mellody Hobson told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Ariel has long championed the cause of spreading financial literacy in the African-American community. Founder John Rogers is helping raise support and funds for Barack Obama.

“Name any well-known black portfolio manager besides John Rogers,” Hobson said on the sidelines of the annual Investment Company Institute (ICI) conference. “And, to our knowledge, I am the only black woman chair of a mutual fund board. That’s not progress,” she said. Hobson chairs the board of trustees of Ariel’s mutual funds.

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Although Hispanic Americans are saving for retirement, more than two-thirds do not use a financial adviser, a study by Prudential found.

Even Hispanic Americans with income over $50,000 typically do not have a professional advising relationship; only 35% report having a professional adviser, says the “Hispanic Americans on the Road to Retirement” report.

Those that do work with an adviser have a higher tendency to contribute to a retirement savings account (85% versus 54% of those without an adviser).

The number with advisers is lower in non-English-speaking households (12%) compared with English-speaking households (34%). Among Hispanic Americans that have an adviser, many choose a family member or friend (professional or nonprofessional). The study suggests that this could mean Hispanic Americans prefer fellow Hispanic Americans to advise them financially.

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The good news for many of the agencies that came under the gaze of the New York City Commission on Human Rights is that they met their goals for minority hiring in 2007. The bad news is critics are likely to be unimpressed.

For one, the goals were set by the agencies themselves. Second, some of them — most notably a handful of Omnicom shops — failed to meet even those goals. But perhaps more important, a closer look at the numbers shows African-Americans and Hispanics lag behind Asian-Americans and that agencies seem to lose minority hires as fast as they hire them. Following a two-year investigation by the CCHR, 15 advertising agencies in 2007 pledged to meet goals for minority hiring, presented as a percentage of total hires for the year. The goals will be monitored for three years, and agencies that don’t meet them will be subject to penalties.

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Editor’s Note: The current economic downturn could lead to the greatest loss of assets for communities of color that’s ever happened, says Alan Fisher, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition since 1992, which advocates for the right of low-income communities and communities of color to have fair and equal access to banking and other financial services. Alan Fisher was interviewed by NAM Editor and host of UpFront, Sandip Roy.

Whether we call it a recession or not, what’s the effect of what’s happening in the economy on the low-income communities who are part of your coalition?

I think low-income people and people of color have been struggling for many years now. The “recovery” has not helped them. Recent reports say that income levels for families are the same dollar-wise as they were in 2000, which means they are worth much less now. Food prices are going up, gas prices are going up and we have a huge housing crisis.

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Xerox Corp. and representatives of current and former black sales representatives have settled a class-action lawsuit accusing the office-equipment manufacturer of racial discrimination.

The settlement would require Xerox to pay $12 million to 1,100 former and current employees and includes legal fees, said Diane Bradley, a lawyer who represented the employees.

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Wells Fargo, Minnesota’s second-largest employer, holds the title of the largest financial institution in the state. The banking giant has what it calls banking stores (180 in Minnesota), mortgage stores and financial stores dotting every area of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. But Wells Fargo also holds another title: the institution most likely to target minorities with high-cost (subprime) loans, regardless of income.

In fact, in a multi-state study last year by a variety of nonpartisan organizations, data indicated that Wells Fargo was 10 times more likely to sell a high-cost loan to African-American borrowers than whites. In Chicago, the city to suffer from the biggest racial disparities, 35 percent of African-Americans received high-cost loans (again, regardless of income) versus only 2.5 percent of whites. And how did the nefarious Countrywide Financial fare in this study? That financial institution had an African-American/white disparity ratio of 4.9, or half of that of Wells Fargo.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Exclude the Hispanic-American market and you make a huge blunder. Americans of Hispanic descent now spend so much that their buying power is estimated to reach US$1.2 trillion by 2011. Reaching the potent Hispanic-American market is one of the issues under discussion at the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx).

How potent is this market? Organisers of the Counterpart International-produced CMEx, to be held May 15 to 19 at the Holiday Inn San Juan on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, say that in just three years’ time, nearly one out of every six residents in the United States is expected be of Hispanic origin.

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For the report, The Media Audit surveyed shoppers from 88 different cities in the nation.

Just over 17 million African-Americans were surveyed with 40% saying they shopped online. In 2003 only 20% were shopping online. More than 20% of shoppers said they make 5 or more purchases online each year and 10% said they make 10 or more purchases online each year.

Nearly 9 million Asian-Americans were surveyed with 70% saying they shopped online, up from 55% in 2003. Nearly half make at least 5 purchases online each year and more than 20% make 10 or more purchases online each year.

There were 23 million Hispanic-Americans surveyed, with 41% admitting to shopping online. That is an increase of nearly 20% over 2003 numbers. At least 23% make 5 purchases each year and 12% make 10 or more purchases each year.

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Researchers are evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a study drug to treat asthma in the African American population.

You may qualify to participate if you:

·        Are African American (both parents identified as African American)

·        Are 12 years of age or older

·        Take asthma medication daily

Qualified study participants will receive study-related drug and medical care at no charge. Reimbursement for time and travel may be provided. Health insurance is not needed to participate.

For more information and a free pre-screening, please visit www.asthmaclinicaltrials.com or call 800-280-7155

A group of 15 leading American mortgage lenders is being accused of racism over the way in which the banks lent money to black customers.