NAFCU lauds FHFA plan to wait on language-preference question

In a move praised by NAFCU, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said Monday that his agency will not add a language-preference question to its Uniform Residential Loan Application now but will take other steps to determine how best to gather such data.

Carrie Hunt, NAFCU’s executive vice president of government affairs and general counsel, said NAFCU and its members greatly welcome the FHFA’s decision to do a more thorough study. “We appreciate Director Watt’s openness on this issue and look forward to continuing to work with him and the agency as it seeks to address the needs of limited-English-proficiency consumers,” Hunt said.

NAFCU and seven other financial trades wrote Watt this June urging against adding a language-preference question to the URLA until compliance and legal concerns had been addressed. Fifty-four House members supported a delay in their own letter.

FHFA had been looking to include a language-preference question on the new 2016 URLA so lenders could implement it in January 2018, when new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act provisions kick in.

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