FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL August 3, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 31
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BANKS MEET HISPANIC COMMUNITY NEEDS BY DANIELLE BRODY AND COLLEEN WILSON dbrody@westfairinc.com cwilson@westfairinc.com
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AS THE NUMBER OF HISPANIC residents continues to grow in Westchester and Fairfield counties, the financial needs for these communities have widened. As a result, both regional and national banks have stepped up their efforts to be a go-to resource for new and longtime residents alike. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey showed that from 2010 to 2013, the Hispanic population grew 10.74 percent in Westchester County and 11.5 percent in Fairfield County. The Business Journal spoke to representatives from Wells Fargo & Co. and TD Bank of Westchester, as well as Brewsterbased Tompkins Mahopac Bank
and Middletown-based Greater Hudson Bank, and Stamfordbased First County Bank — all of which said they have hired more bilingual employees and expanded community outreach to serve the growing Hispanic population. Galdino Velasco, owner of Tacos Guadalajara, said this was not the case when he emigrated from Mexico to Stamford nearly 60 years ago. Now, he said, he notices that nearly all the banks in Stamford have Spanish-speaking employees. He uses First County Bank and Wells Fargo and recommends them to other people. “The bankers are adapting very well,” he said. “They have bilingual personnel — that’s what matters.” Jorge Perez, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Banking, said the Hispanic » BANCO, page 11
Public and private sectors battle cyber barrages UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES FIGHT BACK WITH STATE HELP
BY DANIELLE BRODY dbrody@westfairinc.com IF A HACKER WERE TO SHUT DOWN an essential utility company, it could be a matter of life or death, according to Arthur House, chairman of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. He said in the past few years, utility companies have been dealing with attacks that are growing in frequency and sophistication. House, who took the position about three years ago after a career in both the government and private sectors, including in national security, said PURA has been working closely with the state’s private electric, water, gas and telecommunications companies to share information and create cybersecurity standards. “We are at the stage now where I think
the customers in Connecticut — the people in Connecticut — demand to know what we’re doing about cyberthreats,” House said. “They ask questions. I think it’s important for us to say we hear this and we’re going to have a dialogue.” In 2013, the Connecticut General Assembly ratified Connecticut’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy and directed PURA to prepare a cybersecurity review, which was published in April 2014. The report said hostile penetrations occur frequently and called for regulators and utilities to work together. PURA has recently completed a series of working sessions with individual utility companies to discuss their cybersecurity measures, strengths and weaknesses, performance criteria, training, costs and more. Normally meetings require a courtroom setting with testimony and
cross examination, but these have been informal, House said. “We are looking to suspend the normal relationship between the regulators and those who are regulated in order to work out a solution and a new way of assessing our cybersecurity,” House said. “That’s a new task.” PURA is working on a report to share with the companies, who will be able to comment on it. House said the report should be completed at the end of this year or early next year. The outcome will be a set of standards by which companies in all four sectors — electric, water, gas and telecommunications — will report on their progress and how they are managing their cybersecurity. The utilities groups have also agreed to » CYBER, page 6