Released: January 10, 2017

Filling the financial information gap in limited English communities

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January 10, 2017—When you don’t speak or understand English well, applying for a car loan or mortgage can be hazardous to your financial health. For the more than 25 million people in the U.S. who are less than fluent in English, engaging in English-only financial transactions puts them at greater risk of becoming the victim of scams, being locked into undesirable contract terms and even losing their homes to foreclosure.

The latest issue of Consumer Action News, non-profit Consumer Action’s quarterly newsletter, examines the challenges faced by consumers with limited English proficiency (LEP) and highlights multilingual resources to meet their needs. (Click here for the Language Access Issue.)

For LEP consumers, a lack of access to essential documents and assistance in a language they understand has saddled some borrowers with predatory home loans and caused them to lose loan modification opportunities that could help save their homes.

“As these populations continue to grow, government agencies and corporations can no longer ignore the information vacuum that exists in LEP communities,” says Kathy Li, Consumer Action’s San Francisco office director, a specialist in the challenges faced by Asian American communities.

“We work to help limited-English-speaking consumers tackle key financial terms that can be especially challenging when some of those words don’t exist in an immigrant’s native language,” says Consumer Action’s community outreach manager Nelson Santiago, who specializes in assisting Spanish-speaking consumers.

Language access tools
Consumer advocates have been active in urging government regulators and others to make key financial documents available in at least eight languages (Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Arabic and Haitian Creole) and to improve access to oral and written translation, counseling and complaint services when consumers engage in complex financial transactions.

States like California require companies marketing or negotiating certain credit, rental and homeownership agreements orally in non-English languages to provide associated contractual documents in those languages.

Building resources
Government agencies are paying more attention to the needs of growing LEP communities. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a Spanish version of its website, has created consumer education publications in eight languages and has spelled out key U.S. financial industry terms in Spanish and Chinese glossaries. HUD and the CFPB have multilingual complaint hotlines. LEP.gov (which received Consumer Action’s Excellence Award in 2014) is a one-stop-shop for limited-English resources and best practices at federal government agencies that regulate education, housing, immigration and more.

Big banks vary in making checking, credit/debit card and mortgage information available in other languages (most offer Spanish), but many provide ATM access in multiple languages and retain customers’ language preferences for future visits.

Mortgage industry leaders have begun to consider where they can offer in-language assistance that will benefit both the borrower and the lender, such as application and closing documents and multilingual customer service.

Through its trilingual hotline (Spanish, Chinese and English), Consumer Action offers advice and referrals for consumer complaints and provides free financial education and training materials in five languages (Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese). To learn about Consumer Action’s in-language media and community outreach, as well as other LEP resources, see our newsletter articles “Access resources for limited English speakers” and “Reaching U.S. consumers who don’t speak English”

While far more needs to be done to make financial services fully accessible to limited English consumers, Consumer Action’s research shows signs of a growing recognition that in-language access to financial products and services can prevent unintended harm to individuals and the economy as a whole.

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Through multilingual consumer education materials, community outreach and issue-focused advocacy, Consumer Action empowers underrepresented consumers nationwide to assert their rights in the marketplace and financially prosper.