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CFPB releases guidance on serving limited English proficiency consumers
In efforts to foster an inclusive financial system, the CFPB Wednesday released a new statement on serving limited English proficiency (LEP) consumers, including principles to inform and guide financial institutions in their decision making and guidelines institutions can use to develop related compliance solutions.
NAFCU's submitted comments responding to the CFPB's request for information gathering feedback related to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B were cited in the document. In the letter, NAFCU had urged the bureau to provide additional clarity and flexibility in efforts to "address today's virtual market for financial services and help improve the efficacy of such outreach."
On language access and disparate impact specifically, NAFCU suggested that focused clarification of regulatory expectations would give credit unions greater certainty that good faith efforts to help members would not trigger unintended compliance risks.
As outlined in the new statement, the bureau's guiding principles encourage financial institutions to better serve LEP consumers while ensuring compliance with relevant legal requirements, as well as:
- implementing pilot programs or other phased approaches for rolling out LEP consumer-focused products and services in a manner consistent with guidelines put forth in section B.2 of the statement;
- developing a variety of compliance approaches related to the provision of products and services to LEP consumers consistent with the guidelines included in section B.2 of the statement;
- mitigating certain compliance risks by providing LEP consumers with clear and timely disclosures in non-English languages describing the extent and limits of any language services provided throughout the product lifecycle; and
- considering an extension of credit pursuant to a legally compliant special purpose credit program to increase access to credit for certain underserved LEP consumers.
The CFPB in 2017 published a final notice of its revised language access plan, intending to improve access to resources and services for LEP consumers.
Relatedly, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) last year released new translated resources designed to help LEP borrowers experiencing mortgage-related difficulties due to the ongoing pandemic and its redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA), with the government-sponsored enterprises' (GSEs) preferred language question now voluntary. NAFCU previously flagged for the FHFA credit unions' cost and legal concerns about the addition of the question.