Agustín Velasco, Sr. was a banker in Cuba in the 1950s. During the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, he was detained. A month later, he was released and immediately came to Miami. His wife, his young daughter, and son Agustín Jr., followed a few months later, and the family settled in Little Havana. He went to work in a factory in Hialeah and later started a small box lunch catering business. Eventually, he began speaking with some of the men he had worked alongside in banking in Cuba. There was a need, they agreed. Let’s start a bank in Miami.

In September 1976, Interamerican Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami opened its doors in a small strip mall in Westchester. What Velasco Sr. understood about the Cuban exile community that conventional banks did not was this: these were not people who lacked ability or character. They were professionals — doctors, engineers, accountants, business owners — with work ethic and determination. What they lacked was a credit history in the United States. Most banks saw only the risk. Agustín Velasco Sr. saw the potential.

His son grew up watching all of it. Agustín Jr. attended Miami Senior High School and later earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Miami. He began his career as an engineer, but the bank pulled him in. He went to his father and said he wanted to help grow it. He joined the bank in information technology — his engineering background became the entry point. Then he started learning the business from the inside out. He went back to school and earned his MBA from Nova Southeastern University. In 1998, he became CEO. In 2012, he became President and CEO while continuing to serve on the Board of Directors.

In the 1980s, the institution converted from a federal savings and loan association to a federal savings bank, moved into its current headquarters on Coral Way and 92nd Avenue, and grew steadily into the five-branch, family-owned community institution it is today — now in its second and third generations of leadership. Two of Agustín Jr.’s four daughters, Christie and Lindsie, work alongside him, as does his niece, Isis. His brother-in-law, Ibrahim Pacheco, part of the bank since its earliest days, serves as Chairman of the Board. The bank his father started remains, as he puts it, a family bank. The mission has not changed: know your customers by name and be there when they need help.

He taught courses in the Electronics Department at Miami Dade College. He served on the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council for the Sixth Federal Reserve District. When asked for one word to describe his father, he answers without hesitation: dependable. When asked what his father taught him about money: keep it, don’t waste it, use it wisely. When asked what Coral Way was in the 1970s: opportunity.