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NAFCU supports better access to mortgage credit for creditworthy borrowers but is concerned about potential costs and legal issues that could arise under the Federal Housing Finance Agency's ideas addressing limited English proficiency borrowers, NAFCU's Ann Kossachev said in a letter Friday.

The FHFA is working on a multi-year plan for government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will improve access to mortgage credit for limited English proficiency borrowers. It released a request for information in May.

Kossachev, NAFCU's regulatory affairs counsel, on Friday urged that the FHFA "ensure that any measures taken to assist limited English proficiency (LEP) borrowers do not create additional obligations or increase mortgage origination or servicing costs for credit unions."

To that end, Kossachev urged the FHFA to develop a centralized system of publicly-available translated mortgage materials and to provide new resources and information about multi-lingual housing counseling services. She emphasized that these resources should come from and remain with the GSEs and the FHFA and not be shifted onto mortgage lenders and servicers.

For the FHFA to realize the full goal of increased language access without increasing credit unions' regulatory burdens, the CFPB "should first provide clear, tailored, and reasonable rules for fair lending laws and its unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices (UDAAP) authority," Kossachev wrote. She also questioned whether the FHFA mandate to increase language access should be revisited in light of President Donald Trump's call to eliminate unnecessary regulatory burden.

In other comments, Kossachev detailed the potential new obligations and increased costs that could come from the FHFA's ideas for addressing LEP borrowers, including the costs of having to update credit union systems and written and oral disclosures.

Also addressed were potential legal liabilities that may arise under the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the CFPB's statutory UDAAP authority and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.