By Gary Acosta

When people in our industry hear the word “diversity,” it reminds them of a compliance issue rather than a business opportunity. Diversity is associated with regulation and nobody enjoys being told what to do, especially when the rules seem to be arbitrary. There are companies that genuinely want to do the right thing and view diversity from that standpoint, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, with the Hispanic market representing roughly 63 percent of U.S homeownership growth, a focus on diverse markets, especially Hispanic markets, should not be viewed as a regulatory responsibility or a nice thing to do, but rather a business and economic imperative.

Over the past several years, there have been numerous examples of mortgage lenders that have focused on the Hispanic market as part of their core business strategy, which has resulted in faster growth and higher profits. In fact, the top three lenders in the country account for 14 percent of all mortgage originations nationwide and 20 percent of all loans made to Hispanic homebuyers.

While most lenders support diversity in concept, by delegating diverse markets to their compliance departments, they are in effect placing themselves at a competitive disadvantage …