Compliance News: FHFA Outlines Plans for Language Access Support

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a new “Language Access Multi-Year Plan”, promulgated steps to be taken to provide more support for consumers with limited English proficiency (“LEP”; see https://www.fhfa.gov/PolicyProgramsResearch/Policy/Pages/Language-Access.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery). Some of these steps include:

• Creation of an online “clearinghouse” containing various resources comprised of both GSE materials and “materials from other government agencies” to “assist lenders, servicers, and housing counselors in servicing LEP borrowers”; and

• Developing a disclosure (written in Spanish, “Chinese”, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog) which can be provided in conjunction with FNMA Form 1003, informing LEP borrowers that “not all communications related to a mortgage transaction will be in the preferred language selected by the consumer.”

We will be monitoring these changes and implementing any which impact our document library and/or systems. Any modifications we make will be announced on our website (https://compliance.docutech.com/).