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As the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country, Asian-Americans make up an important market segment for a variety of industries.

Because they are also the most affluent and educated of any U.S. racial or ethnic group, they are a key market for personal financial instruments.

Here’s what the financial services industry needs to know to reach this important demographic.

These days, it’s easier than ever to find an interpreter or translator. A simple search for “interpreter” yields more than 43 million results.

The vast majority of interpreters and translators — 93 percent, according to the Contract Interpreter Information Center — are in business for themselves as freelancers or independent contractors.

Many of them do a fantastic job, but until you actually start working with them, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between a high-quality interpreter and someone who’s barely getting by.

A good language services provider does the legwork of vetting, hiring, training, and scheduling quality interpreters and translators for you, which can save you a lot of time, frustration, and money. More importantly, it ensures that your customer’s experience will be a positive one.

Imagine you speak limited English. You’ve recently gone through surgery. The in-language experience at the hospital was excellent, as you were provided with interpretation at every point from registration to discharge. You return home feeling confident in your prognosis.

While many healthcare providers and insurers succeed at delivering a positive in-language experience when limited-English speakers are in the building, this is often not the case when patients and beneficiaries have to connect with them by phone.

To remedy this issue, several high-performing organizations have implemented customized call flows that empower limited-English speakers to contact them with a qualified interpreter already on the line. Their patients and beneficiaries now have a seamless in-language experience from one end of a call to the other, making hang-ups and lengthy call-handle times a thing of the past.

Our upcoming webinar, “How Customized Call Flows Are Fixing the Phone Maze for Limited-English Patients and Members,” (Tuesday, December 4, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT) will demonstrate how a top healthcare organization and insurer are using a tailored approach to improve the in-language experience for limited-English speakers.  

Demographic shifts tell us that financial consumers have become more culturally and ethnically diverse.

Over 65 million U.S. residents—or 21 percent of the U.S. population over the age of five—speak a language other than English at home. More than one out of every 12 people in the U.S. are limited English proficient (LEP), meaning they speak English less than very well. This group represents around nine percent of adults living in America.

These limited-English consumers have historically found it difficult to access financial products and services. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicates many of the challenges limited-English consumers encounter are related to language and financial literacy. There are also bilinguals who—though not limited English proficient—may prefer to conduct finance-related discussions in their native languages.

LanguageLine interpreters who work with banking clients and their limited-English banking customers are a powerful source of insight on how to communicate with these consumers. A recent survey of our interpreters offered a great reminder that clients are well served by considering the linguistic and cultural diversity of their clients.

Language accommodation for voting – or a lack thereof – could swing 20 congressional elections this November, according to a new report published Monday in The Nation.

As retail banks and other financial institutions set their sights on the future, they see a landscape filled with growing disruption. In addition to the rapid adoption of new technologies, the industry also realizes that U.S. consumers of the future are likely to be more racially and ethnically diverse. Among multicultural consumers in the United States, Hispanics are the fastest-growing group, expected to account for over half of all population growth by 2020.

Presenting financial products in a way that appeals to Hispanic-American consumers is a growth goal for many in the industry. But survey data show that banks have a long way to go in this area.

The Hispanic and Asian populations in Bowling Green, Kentucky, have more than doubled since the turn of the century. Fourteen percent of the city’s residents are originally from another country, giving it the highest percentage of foreign-born citizens in the state.

Calls from limited-English speakers to dispatch and other city services come in high volume.

“Daily – I would say multiple times every day,” said Amelia Bowen, Bowling Green Police Communication Manager, in an interview with news station WBKO-13. “We can’t staff someone 24 hours a day that would be able to meet the whole community’s language needs. So LanguageLine breaks that barrier and gives us the instant access we need to help everyone in the community.”

“This is community policing on steroids.”

These were the words of Nassau County (NY) Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder on Wednesday when he announced the implementation of the LanguageLine InSight Video Interpreting application in patrol vehicles.

The interpretation service was already available in police precincts, headquarters, and other buildings. The addition of the interpreting application to officers’ cell phones allows them to communicate on-demand with residents using a video interpreter in 36 languages (including American Sign Language), as well as 240 languages in audio-only.

“It’s one way that we’re proving that every single person in Nassau County – in our growingly diverse county – will be respected and be protected,” County Executive Laura Curran said.

For a majority of Americans, banking is just a part of life. However, roughly a third of the population has little or no access to a bank, according to the FDIC’s most recent National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households.

That means banks and other financial institutions looking to expand their reach have a tremendous opportunity to do so by reaching this group - provided they use the right approach. Here’s a look at the unique needs of unbanked and underbanked populations and what organizations can do to bridge the gap.