We are joined by Ena Koukourinis, Senior Counsel in the Bureau’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, and Frank Vespa-Papaleo, the Office’s Deputy Director.  We discuss the statement’s background and goals, the fair lending and UDAAP concerns the statement seeks to address, key aspects of the guidance it provides, and Bureau resources available to industry concerning LEP consumers.… Continue Reading

As we recently reported, the CFPB released new guidance on January 13, 2021, in an effort to give industry participants more concrete guidance about how to tackle the sometimes-daunting issue of serving customers in non-English languages.  Director Kraninger announced the guidance in a blog post of her own, and reached out with telephone calls to announce the release of the guidance. … Continue Reading

In a development welcomed by industry members, the CFPB published today a “Statement Regarding the Provision of Financial Products and Services to Consumers with Limited English Proficiency.”  The Statement is intended to provide “compliance principles and guidelines to inform and assist financial institutions in their decision making related to serving LEP consumers.”… Continue Reading

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has announced that it has extended until July 31, 2017 the comment period on its Request for Input on improving language access in mortgage lending and servicing.

Issued this past May, the RFI asked for input to be provided by no later than July 10, 2017. … Continue Reading

A group of eight trade associations has sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) asking the FHFA to extend by at least 45 days the comment period on the FHFA’s Request for Input (RFI) on improving language access in mortgage lending and servicing.  Issued this past May, the RFI asks for input to be provided by no later than July 10, 2017.… Continue Reading

Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) has issued a brief in which it urges the CFPB and other federal agencies to adopt strong language access protections to improve the mortgage marketplace for limited English proficiency (LEP) consumers.  Although the CFPB has indicated that serving LEP consumers should be a priority for financial instititutions, AFR wants the CFPB to go further “in establishing rules and procedures to make the financial system fully and fairly accessible to these consumers.”  … Continue Reading