CFPB Multi-Cultural Resources Webinar


 Please stand by for realtime captions. 

 Next slide. For those just learning about the Bureau, we like to share the CPB's mission and vision. As you can see here, we strive to make consumer financial markets work for consumers. For providers that are responsible, and the economy as a whole. We work to protect the system from unfair or deceptive or abusive practices. And we take action against bad actors. Also, as demonstrated in today's webinar, we are - that we need to make smart, financial decisions. Next slide. Now, I hand today's webinar over to Carmen Cruz.  
 Thank you, Carmen. Can you hear me? 
 Yes. Thank you. 

 Hello. My name is Carmen Cruz, and I work in the office of financial education here at the Bureau. I our primary role  is an outreach specialist to special communities such as libraries and limited English proficiency community. Otherwise known as the LEP community. Today I plan to highlight some of the offerings the CFPB has in languages other than English. Under normal circumstances, I like to present in person.  In a conference setting or at a session. However, these days, things are far from normal and with Covid-19, many companies and families are having to make adjustments to their norm. Hopefully it will still be able to engage you and convey to CFPB's  commitment to consumers. In the next slide, I will provide information about the resources re-created in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The CFPB  is committed to providing consumers with up-to-date information and resources on how to manage their finances during the pandemic. The CFPB and other regulators have encouraged financial institutions  to work with their consumers to meet their needs. We have created a central hub on consumer finance.gov. With resources and blogs. Also on this website, you will find relevant financial educational resources from other government agencies. In the next slide, you can find concepts, topics including credit and debt management. Student loan repayment, mortgage relief options, scams, banking tips, and a guide to Covid-19 economic stimulus relief. Amongst many other topics. The resources are available in English, and are also available in Spanish, Chinese, both traditional and simplified, Korean, Vietnamese, and to Dolly - Svengali. 
 In the next light, I would like to take time to talk about additional offerings we operate at the CFPB outside of Covid in the pandemic . First, I would like to speak about CFPB  and as manual. This landing page is almost identical to our English offering. You will find consumer tools such as SCS PD. Which is a database over 1100 financial FAQs. You will find a place to submit a complaint and much more. In the next slide, you will see the languages that we have offered our consumers. There are 41 million immigrants in America. Many of whom prefer to still manage their money and conduct day-to-day activities in their native language. Using the information from the census Bureau and our complaint database, we determined which of the top languages are spoken in the United States, and then we translated our materials into those languages. The languages we chose our Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, sig Ali, Russian, Arabic and Haitian Creole. In the next page, on the next slide, you will notice on consumer finance.gov, there is a language ribbon on the top right corner. You can point and click to the language of your choice. And you will be led to our language pages. There, you will see our top 13 publications in said language, and our top 5 Covid-19 blogs. Some of the blogs are tips for financial caregivers, and be aware of scams during Covid. On the next slide, you will see where re-created for newcomer side. Which we translated into eight languages. Some of the guides our ways to receive your money, - for opening an account. Ways to pay your bills, and selecting financial products and services. These guides were created due to people coming from different countries and not being really familiar with our financial system. So, the guides will help the LEP consumer with information they need to make the best financial decisions for them and their families while living here in the United States. 
 On the next slide, you will see where we offer bulk ordering of her publications. We acknowledge the fact that you all are probably at home and not in your offices, and may not be ordering at this time. However, it is important for us to talk about how you can order publications by phone, once everything is back to the new norm. 
 If you notice, in the yellow box there, you will see the language drop down. To click there, you will see where we offer all of our languages, and when you select a language, it will take you to that page, and you will then be able to choose which publications that you would like to order. Publications are free. Mailing is free to you. They are in color, and it is delivered to your doorstep and ready for you to place them on your shelves. Our publications are not only available in print, but they are also available online, in a downloadable PDF. You can feel free to download those and make copies if you are still waiting for hours to be delivered. There is no copyright infringement. This is the government, so, anything that we have your able to make copies of and distribute at will. Also make note that each of our publications, you are able to bulk order up to 1000 copies per publication. 
 On the next slide, you will see that we created audio files for people who prefer to listen and learn. So, we took our six most order brochures, and we made audio files in eight different languages. Look for the audio file icon, and you can either listen to them online or download the MP3 file. 
 Moving to the next slide, I would like to talk about the glossaries that we created in 2015. The glossaries are financial terms that we frequently use when creating content here at the CFPB. We translated those terms into Spanish , and into traditional Chinese. Last year, we expanded the glossaries from 250 words and terms, to now, where they contain over 1200 financial words and terms. We did this in coordination with other agencies and organizations who also had glossaries. Those agencies were HFA, the FDIC, DOJ, IRS, the FTC, the Social Security Administration, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, GSA, and the - Association of Hispanic real estate professionals. This year, HFA has expanded the offering from not only Spanish and Chinese, to Vietnamese. And by the end of the year, they hope to have Korean. I want to stress the use of the glossary is voluntary only. And it is not guidance from the CFPB nor is it guidance from any other federal regulator. We are, we ask that you use it as a tool because the main goal is to maintain consistency throughout publications and content around finance. We hope that each American is able to pick up publications from these agencies and see that the same words are being translated and the same messages being transferred to each person. With that, I would like to go ahead and handed over to my colleague, Ida and the office of financial -. 
 Bryce, Carmen and thanks everyone for joining. My name is Ena Koukourinis and I am a senior counsel  in the office of fair lending an equal opportunity. Which among other things, is the office that coordinates the bureaus fair lending work. Today I'd like to highlight a couple of the bureaus fair lending resources, which are the know your rights pressures on lending discrimination, they describe the protections of equal credit opportunity act or ECOA, including the categories based on which lenders are not allowed to discriminate against borrowers.  Those categories include race, religion and national origin and sex. The brochures also outline the types of credit to which it applies for instance, for instance, home loans, HUD loans, credit cards and student loans. In addition, the ECOA brochures provide tips to help  consumers protect himself from discrimination, including highlighting the importance of conductive research into products, shopping around for rates. And also they contain warning signs of discrimination. For example, being treated differently in person than you were over the phone. Or hearing a lender make negative comments about race, national origin, or other factors. Or being discouraged from applying for credit. The brochures include links to resources consumers can use when they believe they have been victims of discrimination, including the bureaus consumer complaint portal. There are two types of brochures available on the bureaus website. One is for consumers. And one is for entities such as housing counselors, that work directly with consumers. Currently, both types of brochures are available in English and Spanish. And links to those materials are shown on the slide. The brochures will soon be available in the following additional languages. Chinese, Vietnamese, to Gallic, Korean, French Creole, Arabic and Russian. We encourage folks to check the bureaus website for those websites. With that, I will turn it over to Jill. 

 Thank you, I know. Thanks so much to everyone around the country for joining us today. It is really exciting to see so much interest in serving multilingual audiences. I am Jill Wheeler. I serve the special populations advisor in the office of community affairs. Our office focuses on economically vulnerable consumers, which includes people with low incomes, low wealth, and people who experience a wide range of barriers and access to financial products and services. We focus on providing resources to strengthen the capacity of organizations, agencies, and practitioners who typically work with people in one-on-one settings. For example, many of the people use our resources are front line social service staff, such as case managers, legal aid service providers, housing counselors, financial coaches, and others working in similar settings. I will briefly introduce you today to our suite of financial empowerment tools called your money, your goals. Next slide, please. 
 Your money, your goals is a set of tools, information and resources that is designed to help practitioners provide the right content at the right time. For the people that you serve. To be clear, this is not a curriculum that expects people to go in sequence from one topic to the next. But rather, a toolkit approach to meet the immediate needs and interests of the people you serve. So, you can pull out the right topic at the right time. 
 The materials were designed with frequent field testing on the ground with practitioners, and input from people who use these resources every day. The materials take a nonjudgmental approach to discussing and learning about a wide range of money topics. They are designed to lay out the information, help people know their rights, and understand the options so that people can make their own decisions based on their unique situation, and their own needs, values, and goals. You will see that the materials, particularly the toolkit, incorporates a lot of tips, advice and suggestions on using them in different types of contexts. So, for example, we will include see Justin's if you are meeting with the client for 10 minutes, or 30 minutes, or if you might see someone during repeat visits over a longer period of time. The central resource in the suite of materials is the toolkit, which you see in the upper left-hand side of the slide. The toolkit is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. An additional small, colorful book behind on bills is available in English and Spanish. Called [ Speaking Foreign Language ]. 
 You will notice that we all have also have a wide range of resources for other special populations, including companion guides for native communities. Reentry or people with criminal records, and for serving people with disabilities and their families. All these materials are available online through the link in the bottom left of the slide. Your main website, consumer finance.gov under the practitioner resources tab. You will see your money, your goals. The materials can be ordered in print copies through the system that Carmen mentioned earlier. Through this web page you will see that we have available in the printed copy, of the toolkit in Spanish and behind on bills in Spanish. The Chinese version is only available for download. Since these materials are fairly large and heavy and expensive, they are generally available in smaller batches of 25-50 copies, or if you need a larger set, you can email our team directly at the address that will be coming up in the presentation. 
 You will see that in the download, it is a PDF format, and the individual tools, there are about 40 of them in the booklet, are uniform - so, you can still get the information online, they have auto calculate functions. So, you can complete the material online if you prefer, and then printed out. Or, you can print copies and fill out by hand or share with the people that you serve. I do want to note, that the Spanish and Chinese versions of the toolkit were last updated in 2016, so we do recommend that if you are looking for very specific technical details, regarding laws that might have changed or addresses that might have changed, that you cross reference the English version of the toolkit that is more a dated. But the general tools and content in the toolkit is available in those other languages for download. 
 If you are serving people in other languages, we hope you will be pleased to see the way the materials are defined using many universally recognizable symbols or icons as prompts. These are designed to help overcome language and education barriers. In addition to the main toolkit, we have the behind on bills that I mentioned in the smaller booklets that are colorful, portable, engaging set of money management tools that are designed a little more in work book style that you may have people take home and complete or people may keep on hand to use over time. If we could go to the next slide, I would like to highlight the nine main modules in the toolkit, covering a wide range of common financial topics. In the introductory section, there are a number of pieces related to having the money conversation, which can often be challenging to dive into the details or approach the topic in certain settings. So, there are some tips and prompts and suggestions for getting into that conversation for practitioners who may be less familiar or less comfortable with the topics. 
 The module 1 on setting goals is one that we find very popular, and currently, in the pandemic context, we see many people working to revisit their goals, or adjust or change goals and expectations, and adapt based on current financial situations and challenges. So, those tools can be helpful in the current context. The toolkit covers other standard topics, including saving, tracking income, and benefits. Paying bills, cash flow tools to help look at the income, the flow incoming and outgoing expenses, and to factor in the timing of any public benefits people may be receiving. Additional topics include dealing with debt, which includes materials on what to do with if you are contacted by a debt collector. Templates and information to help respond, and also, information to help avoiding scams related to debt collection. The credit report module has been very popular and we understand that many people made me concerned about credit reports, concerned about avoiding scams or errors on credit reports. So, that module offers tools to help people understand where they can go to request free copies. How to carefully review credit reports, and how to dispute or correct any errors that may be found on the credit report. The module on choosing financial products and services includes tools that may be particularly helpful for people who are opening new bank accounts, or considering new financial services. It provides tools to help lay out the options, help people think through the pros and cons of different product is, and how they would be most useful are most helpful, given their situation and needs. And the final module on protecting your money helps people to avoid scams, deal with identity theft, and avoid financial exploitation. A few of the most popular tools in the recent context have included a tool on prioritizing bills when money is tight, helping people to make sure that they can assess the trade-off between paying some bills versus others. So, even though one may be one may be getting more frequent calls or higher visibility, it will help lay out what is the risk of not paying certain bills. Could I end up losing my housing or my transportation? Or, how do I protect my basic needs for food and supplies? Other frequently requested and used tools around income and expense trackers, bill calendars, comparing products and services, avoiding scams and credit reports. 
 If we could go on to the next slide, please? 
 I would like to mention an upcoming training opportunity. Throughout the year, we have a variety of training opportunities, and in the next few weeks, we will be sending out an invitation that is open to the public and is targeted at practitioners, serving people in one-on-one settings. We will be holding a webinar series starting in early June for several weeks. And once each week, we will cover 1-2 modules of the toolkit. So, if you are interested in receiving information about the materials or signing up for training opportunities, you can visit the website, ConsumerFinance.gov /your money your goals. And you can subscribe for the specific email is there, or for other questions about these training opportunities and resources for practitioners, you can email our team at your money your goals and consumer finance.gov. So now, I would like to turn it back over to Shaba to lead the question and answer session. 

 Thank you, Joan. Thank you to all of today's presenters. We hope that all of you listening found this webinar to be helpful. We will now move to the Q&A portion of today's session. 
 hat you may have. Again, if you have any additional comments or questions, follow-up with us and we will be sure to respond in a timely manner. Our email is public engagement @CFPB.gov . And we hope you have a wonderful day. That concludes today's webinar. 
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