FHFA and GSEs Add Chinese Language to Mortgage Translations Clearinghouse

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac announced recently the addition of the traditional Chinese language resources to the Mortgage Translations Clearinghouse which currently includes Spanish-translated documents.

The addition of the Chinese language enhancements to this existing online repository will provide standard accessible resources for the mortgage industry to help consumers whose primary language is Chinese to navigate the home buying process. The Mortgage Translations Clearinghouse provides a centralized source of industry standard resources to assist lenders, housing counselors, and other real estate professionals in helping borrowers with limited English proficiency.

FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac worked with industry experts, consumer advocates, and other government agencies, such as the CFPB to develop the online collection of mortgage documents, educational materials, and a Spanish and traditional Chinese-English glossary. The glossary is expected to be particularly helpful in standardizing translations across the mortgage industry.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey shows that 4.8 million Chinese-Americans currently live in the United States and make up 23% of the overall Asian-American Pacific Islander community. This is the fastest growing population demographic and is projected to become the largest minority population.

In the future, three other languages, Vietnamese, Korean, and Tagalog, commonly spoken by households with limited English proficiency, will be added to the Translation Clearinghouse.