Last Month's Q&A Answered

The following question appeared in the Q&A section of Banking Spectrum's Report Bulletin last month. Compare your answer to the correct answer below:

Q: We acquired a branch in an area that is largely Hispanic.  All our documents are in English and customers who are not fluent in English are directed to branch staff who are bilingual.  None of our disclosures are in English nor are any of our agreements, contracts and statements.  We use different systems for different products.  Do we need to provide Spanish speaking documents at the branch? 

A: A goods idea and one almost born out of necessity because of the large per centage of Spanish and perhaps non-English speaking applicants.  A failure to do so could result in CRA and fair lending issues in later compliance exams.  The bank will be faced with legal problems when they are faced with delinquent and other bad customer behavior that is defended on the basis that the customer did not understand what he was signing.  Having an interpreter for the customer won’t do on a long term basis.  Consider having English and Spanish versions for mortgage loan documents but have the customer sign the English version with the Spanish version attached or referenced or with a separately signed acknowledgment that he understood what he signed and all questions were answered.