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Fidelity National Financial Expands Cultural Competency Program Throughout California
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| Copyright: | PR Newswire | | Source: | PR Newswire | | Wordcount: | 663 |
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In response to the
dramatic population growth among Latinos, African Americans, and Asian
Americans in California, Fidelity National Financial (FNF), one of the
nation's leading providers of title insurance, specialty insurance and claims
management services, today announced plans to expand the company's Cultural
Competency Training Program throughout the state of California. The training
program enables employees to better understand key demographics and traits of
multicultural communities and to improve communications skills with
multicultural customers.
Spearheaded by FNF's Multicultural Marketing Division, the Cultural
Competency Training program hopes to train as many as 1,000 FNF employees the
by end of 2007 in California. The company recently completed its first phase
of cultural competency training for 400 employees based in the San Francisco
Bay Area and for 65 employees based in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
counties. Forging ahead with its expansion plans for the rest of the state,
FNF has scheduled training programs and seminars for its staff and real estate
professionals in other major California locations such as the Fresno and the
Los Angeles areas. The training will then be expanded to other states.
The FNF Cultural Competency Training Program raises the participants'
awareness about the roles of culture, imparts knowledge and appreciation for
various multicultural communities, as well as teaches effective communication
with multicultural customers. In addition, FNF also aims to represent the
diverse communities that they serve by hiring more bilingual and bicultural
real estate professionals.
"For real estate professionals, cultural competency training is more
important than ever," said Pablo Wong, Senior Vice President of Market
Development for FNF. "Increasingly, today's home buyers come from diverse
cultures and speak different languages. It is imperative to understand how to
better serve these communities which have been underserved in the past.
Beginning with education and training, FNF is creating a company that better
embraces all cultures."
The multicultural consumer pool has expanded dramatically in the real
estate market for the last decade. According to U.S. Census data the Latino
homeownership rate increased from 41.2 percent in 1994 to 46.7 percent in
2003. The Census Bureau also noted that the African American homeownership
rate reached 49.1 percent in 2004 from 42.3 percent 10 years ago. The UCLA
Asian American Studies Center and the Asian Real Estate Association of America
study showed that 60 percent of Asian Americans were homeowners in 2004, an
increase of seven percentage points from the 53 percent homeownership rate in
2000.
"We at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
(NAHREP) applaud FNF's commitment to serving multicultural communities," said
Jorge Carcamo, president of NAHREP's San Francisco Chapter. "It is gratifying
to see the industry paying attention to diversity training. We at NAHREP look
forward to working more closely with FNF in the years ahead to empower more
multicultural families to realize their dream of home ownership."
"Culture plays a special and significant role in the communities we
serve," said Jeff Woo, president of the Chinese Real Estate Association of
America. "Having the ability to truly serve the communities to the best
possible extent is a most meaningful and rewarding experience."
About Fidelity National Financial
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE: FNF), number 248 on the Fortune
500, is a leading provider of title insurance, specialty insurance and claims
management services. FNF is one of the nation's largest title insurance
companies through its title insurance underwriters -- Fidelity National Title,
Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Union Title and Alamo Title -- that issue
approximately 29 percent of all title insurance policies in the United States.
FNF also provides flood insurance, personal lines insurance and home warranty
insurance through it specialty insurance business. FNF also is a leading
provider of outsourced claims management services to large corporate and
public sector entities through its minority-owned subsidiary, Sedgwick CMS.
More information about FNF can be found at www.fnf.com .
SOURCE Fidelity National Financial
CONTACT: Sharon Sim-Krause, ssim-krause@golinharris.com, or Mary Placido, mplacido@golinharris.com, both of GolinHarris, +1-415-274-7902, for Fidelity National Financial
This is a news service of Thomson Business Intelligence Service ©2006. This content is for your personal use only, subject to Terms and Conditions. No redistribution allowed.
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