Translating Banking Educational Materials for LEP Customers

Would you sign up for a banking service without understanding how it works? Unfortunately for many customers who are limited-English proficient (LEP), banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions often don’t provide educational materials or contracts in their customers’ primary or preferred languages.

In honor of National Financial Literacy Month, we’d like to share a few best practices to help you grow your customer base with translated and localized information.

Why should financial institutions translate educational materials?

About 9% of the US population speaks English less than “very well,” meaning they often rely on others to interpret conversations or translate written information. Studies show that customers prefer to work with companies who provide translated content:

• Given a choice between buying two similar products, 76% of customers will choose the one with information in their native language. In addition, 40% will never buy from websites in other languages. (CSA Research)
• 70% of end-users say they feel more loyal to companies that provide support in their native language (ICMI)
• 65% of surveyed customers prefer content in their language, even if it’s poor quality, and 73% want product reviews in their language, if nothing else. (CSA Research)
• Businesses that expand their translation budgets are 1.5 times more likely to report an overall increase in revenue. (CSA)

For more stats and tips to improve your business’s customer service, check out our landing page:

How to communicate with your LEP customers to provide excellent customer service

Which educational materials should financial institutions translate?

CyraCom’s secure, cost-effective translation and localization services in over 300 languages can help you better communicate with your limited-English-proficient customers or members. Our professional linguists are subject matter experts who can help you translate:

• Websites
• Online Banking
• Disclosures and regulations (FDIC, etc.)
• Federally required reporting
• Marketing collateral and advertisements
• Product, service, and other process information
• Eligibility information
• Applications
• Mortgage and loan documents
• Financial assistance applications
• Satisfaction surveys
• Financial education articles
• Deals and discount information

Why invest in professional translation?

Machine translation technology is all over the news, with many articles promoting how fast, easy, and inexpensive it is to convert your content into another language. However, machine translation (MT) from free platforms can be risky—how will you know if the translated content conveys your true message?

CyraCom's professional translators localize your text to clearly communicate your message and make it sound as though it were originally written in the target language. They help ensure your intended meaning is relayed rather than simply translating word-for-word. Working with an LSP for document or website translation may take longer than using a bilingual employee or MT platform, but you can better avoid alienating potential customers.

CyraCom offers free translation quotes

Contact our team at translation@cyracom.com to ask questions or submit a request for a free quote.