Durham, N.C. - Duke University has committed to deposit up to $5 million in the Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) over the next five years. The investment will guarantee affordable financial services for low-income individuals in Durham who find it difficult to obtain loans and mortgages through conventional lending sources because they lack credit history.

The money, which will be deposited in million-dollar increments, could provide funding for as much as 50 mortgages, or about 200 people. LCCU will dedicate the funds for low-income consumer and mortgage lending in DurhamCounty, which is home to more than half of Duke's work force.

"We are pleased that Duke University has deepened its long-standing commitment to LCCU and strengthening our communities," said Alison Beck Yonas, director of financial management at the credit union and a Duke University alumna. "We see this substantial deposit -- the largest the LCCU has received -- as a catalyst for continued growth of the credit union, and increasing our ability to provide additional affordable financial services to those most in need."

LCCU is one of the fastest-growing credit unions in the country. In just six years of operation, LCCU has made more than 7,800 consumer loans for $32.4 million. Three-quarters of LCCU borrowers have no credit history when they first receive a loan from the credit union, and an average of 750 members create their first credit history each year through its credit-builder and other secured loans. Members currently have $25 million in total savings.

LCCU recently launched secured and unsecured credit cards, and continues to develop plans for providing internet banking. Since its creation in 2000, with the support of credit union leaders like State Employees Credit Union (SECU), Self-Help Credit Union and the Minority Support Center, the credit union has grown from $10 million to $34 million in assets, serving more than 45,000 members with five branches across North Carolina.

"I am delighted with the success and remarkable growth of the Latino Community Credit Union, which is providing important financial services to this rapidly growing segment of the Latino community in Durham and the rest of North Carolina," said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. "I am proud of Duke's participation in launching this important enterprise and am very pleased that we can provide this additional support to ensure that Latinos in Durham can enjoy the many benefits of home ownership."

Duke became one of the credit union's first and largest supporters with an initial deposit of $400,000. Duke has helped to leverage other institutional investors, paving the way for the credit union to develop its homeownership program for new Americans, and enabling LCCU to become a nationally recognized model for encouraging new immigrants to trust and use banks.

North Carolina's Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic population totaled 600,913, or 7 percent of the state's total population, in 2004. The average Hispanic household contains 3.7 people (compared to 2.4 people in the average non-Hispanic household) and earns about $32,000 annually (compared to $45,700 for non-Hispanics), according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Supporting the Latino Community Credit Union's outreach to low-income Latinos who want to become homeowners complements other affordable housing initiatives in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership.

Duke's deposit with the Latino Community Credit Union follows two other recent university initiatives involving Hispanics. The Spanish Leap Program, announced in April, will offer training, including a language immersion trip to Mexico, to about 30 teachers in the seven Durham Public Schools in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. On May 31, a new, specially designed house for migrant workers, designed to promote quality housing for itinerant workers in North Carolina, was dedicated in Kinston. Seventeen people will live in the house. The project is a collaboration involving Harvey Farms, Mt. Olive Pickle Company, Duke University and the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.