If your bank or credit union promotes real estate related products, you know you have to comply with the Fair Housing Act. Even on social media. The question is how can you achieve in social media compliance for banks or social media compliance for credit unions when it comes to the Fair Housing Act when promoting mortgages or other real estate related products? Let’s get to the bottom of it.
As a social media attorney for the banking industry, I’m here to teach you how to comply with the Fair Housing Act when using social media. So first, let’s start with the law. Every time a bank or credit union promotes a real estate related product, we know we have to comply with the Fair Housing Act. And we do that by putting the official Fair Housing Act sign on our advertisements. This looks like a little house with an = sign in it that says Equal Housing Lender, or Equal Housing Opportunity, or uses that language “Equal Housing Lender” in the text of our advertisement.
At this point, I am sure you are thinking “Ethan, I know this. We’ve been promoting mortgages at our credit union or our bank for years.” But you may not know how this law applies to social media. There are two things that your bank or credit union needs to do to comply with the Fair Housing Act when promoting these products and services on social media:
The first thing is that if you have an ad or a post that promotes a real estate related product you have to use the equal housing lender disclaimer on that specific post. It can either be in the text of the post itself, or you can use the equal housing lender sign in the imagery like the photo or the video of the ad, but it must appear on the post itself, or you can violate the Fair Housing Act. And trust me, no one wants to do that because there are really expensive penalties.
But that’s not the only place where you have to put the equal housing lender disclosure. You should also put the statement on the cover photo of your social media profiles. Now, why is that? You see, the law says that you have to put your disclosures on the first page of an advertisement. And if someone is visiting your social media profile, your cover photo, up at the top, really is the first page of that advertisement where you then promote products and services later on down the line. So whether you use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube, your bank or credit union should also use the equal housing lender statement or the sign on your cover photo itself.
Now, you’re thinking to yourself, “Ethan, there’s no way I can put it on Instagram because my profile photo is so small and there is no cover photo.” Don’t worry, just put the statement in your bio. By adding the equal housing opportunity, or equal housing lender statement on your social media posts that promote a real estate related product and on your cover photo, you can comply with social media compliance for banks or social media compliance for credit unions under the Fair Housing Act.
The Fair Housing Act is just one of dozens of financial laws and regulations that apply to social media. According to FFIEC Social Media Guidance every financial institution that uses social media must have a social media risk management program that manages all financial related risks, including the Fair Housing Act. To help you understand these laws, The Social Media Law Firm had created a free guide on how banks and credit unions can manage social media legal risks.
You can download it today for free by visiting financialfridays.co. Not .com because we couldn’t afford the domain name because it was like $2,000. But if you visit financialfridays.co you can download our free guide on how your bank and credit union can manage social media legal risks and create a social media risk management program to make sure that your bank uses social media safely and effectively. Or, simply contact us below and we’d be happy to help you set up your bank’s social media risk management program.
