Patty Arvielo
Co-Founder and President
New American Funding
Headquarters: Tustin, CA
Industry: Mortgage
CEO: Rick Arvielo
Website: www.newamericanfunding.com
Helping diverse customers is key to New American Funding. It has long out-performed other large lenders when it comes to lending to minorities. This is a result of its Latino Focus program, aimed at new Hispanic homeowners, and the New American Dream initiative, designed for Black homeowners. The company believes in hiring “mirrors,” people who are familiar with cultural differences and equipped to help those in minority communities.
Years ago, the company realized that the Hispanic community faces language barriers and financial literacy challenges when it comes to buying a home. It hired mortgage professionals who are equipped to work with these borrowers and as a result, over a fifth of the company’s workforce is Hispanic.
Core elements of the program also include Spanish educational materials and Spanish language advertising.
And it wants to do far more. The company is committed to increasing homeownership in underserved markets. In 2017, New American Funding pledged to increase Hispanic homeownership with $25 billion committed to new mortgages for Hispanic borrowers by 2024. The company is also committed to lending $20 billion in new mortgages to Black borrowers over seven years.
Of course, the company faces strong economic headwinds in the mortgage industry. That’s on top of the same problem it has been trying to address since its founding 20 years ago: decades of racial and economic inequality that prevented minority communities from thriving. New American Funding has long sought to right these wrongs and has become an industry leader in lending to minorities. The company has no plans of slowing down or resting on its laurels. Instead, the company plans to increase its focus on lending to underserved communities and will continue to do so until all who deserve to buy a home are able to do so.
