Mortgage fintech Maxwell launches Spanish loan application

Maxwell’s Spanish-language POS is a critical extension of the company’s larger mission to drive home ownership in the United States. Loan officers using Maxwell Point of Sale can now choose to activate a Spanish-language loan application to help the growing segment of Hispanic borrowers fulfill the financial dream of home ownership. The result is an optimal experience for both loan officers and their borrowers, characterized by increased efficiency, communication and the potential for more loans closed. On the borrower side, POS guides individuals with limited English skills through the entire application, from landing page to submission, in Spanish. On the flip side, loan officers retain powerful features like QuickApply or FileFetch, and can continue to work in English without interrupting their workflow.

This solution comes at a critical time for U.S. Hispanic homeownership, which is set to represent 56% of all new homeowners by 2030, according to data from Freddie Mac. However, existing Point of Sale solutions, which are the primary means for lenders to engage with borrowers, are often haphazard and require significant effort from both loan officer and borrower. The complex nature of mortgage applications, including niche terminology, and the sheer number of documents required to complete them pose a significant challenge to native Spanish speakers, limiting access to home ownership and its proven wealth-building capabilities. In fact, limited English proficiency (LEP) is one of the top barriers to homeownership among Hispanic Americans, second only to credit score challenges.

“Lenders have historically relied on a wide variety of solutions to attract, convert and engage Spanish-speaking communities. Some of these solutions include Spanish-speaking employees or contracted Spanish speakers, communications, as well as mobile-oriented messaging and social media engagement. These lenders now have an appropriate solution to deliver on the promise of affordability and availability for a rapidly growing market, says John Paasonen, CEO of Maxwell.

Utilizing a community-oriented approach, Maxwell consulted his in-house group of Latin American processors and underwriters to not only reinforce the cultural context, but also retain any industry-specific context and nuance. The end result is a welcoming borrower experience that provides cultural empathy to Hispanic Americans who constantly navigate the LEP, and a fully compliant lender POS system that addresses all URLA and MISMO 3.4 requirements and uses seamless integration to populate loan files, in English , directly in LOS.