You may have heard lately some CMMC staffers

speaking enthusiastically about something called

the Latino Lending Initiative (LLI) —a program

designed specifically for the Spanish language

borrower. The initiative is a joint CMMC venture

with Freddie Mac (FHLMC). This project is

being piloted out of the Rancho Cucamonga office

and will focus specifically on Southern

California’s Inland Empire (Eastern Los Angeles

County, Riverside County and San Bernardino

County).

The LLI’s formal rollout, which has a target date

of April 1, 2005, will include advertising in local

Latino media outlets. With Freddie Mac's

guidance and assistance, we have met with a

number of nonprofit organizations including the

California Association of Realtors and the

National Association of Hispanic Real Estate

Professionals with the specific intent of working

with Latinos in Spanish; both verbally and in

documentation. Although legal instruments

recorded in this country need to be written in

English, we will now be providing to our

members Spanish-language descriptions and

explanations of their loan documents.

To supplement the initiative’s success, we will use

bilingual loan originators, sales-support staff,

coordinators, and closers. Freddie Mac has hired a

local Latino marketing company to develop

materials in Spanish language and "in culture.”

They have also hired a web designer to develop a

multi-tiered website that will be partially bilingual

and partly Spanish language only. In addition, we

are hiring a call center with a bilingual staff to

assist our Loan Consultants at our Rancho office.

This call center will be used to

gather basic information as well

as distribute first-time

homebuyer packages (in

Spanish) to members and answer

servicing questions.

The Latino market is huge

(approximately 4 million people

in our initial target area alone)

and largely underserved. A

recent study done by CUNA

reports that 88 percent of

Latinos wish financial institutions

would offer more services with their specific

interests in mind. The demand from the credit

unions is growing, and as this initiative is being

put together we are getting more calls about it

from credit unions from all over the country. The

LLI is a solid opportunity to expand our Retail

Channel credit unions by a significant margin. In

Southern California alone, some credit union’s

memberships are up to 75 percent Latino. These

members are, on average, excellent credit risks,

and their membership has a highly positive effect

on credit unions.

1HOSS Round Up - March 2005

HOSS Round UpMarch 2005

AA monthly newsletter presented by HOSS -Homeownership Solutions / monthly newsletter presented by HOSS -Homeownership Solutions / VVolume 20olume 20

Latino Lending Initiative on HorizonWill Start in Southern California

CMMC’s secondary marketing associate vice president Jim Monachino addresses a meeting of the LatinoLending Initiative at CMMC’s office in Rancho Cucamonga, California.