Credit unions are adding AI assistants to their websites to answer members around the clock. We asked six of them the questions a Spanish-speaking member would ask. Not one got that member to a useful answer in Spanish.
What we did
In October 2026 we used the public chat on the websites of six US credit unions, including two in New Jersey. Each one has an AI virtual assistant on its public website. We asked everyday questions, the same ones for each: opening hours, an auto loan, talking to a person, and opening an account. We asked some in English and most in Spanish, the way a real member would. We did not log in, share any personal data or try to trick anyone. We kept the credit unions anonymous.
What we found
| What happened when we wrote in Spanish | Credit unions |
|---|---|
| Refused the message: "a language we don't support just yet" | 1 of 6 |
| Answered only in English | 3 of 6 |
| Answered in Spanish, then switched to English when we asked for a person | 1 of 6 |
| Broke: answered a loan question with "Catch you later ${USER.first_name}." | 1 of 6 |
| Offered help from a Spanish-speaking person | 0 of 6 |
Even in English, only three of the six gave a straight answer to whether they open on Sunday. In Spanish it got worse. Asked about opening an account with an ITIN instead of a Social Security number, a common question for new members, two of the six answered a different question altogether, one about a health savings account and one about overdraft limits.
One detail stood out. One credit union has a live chat with automatic translation for its staff, so a member can write in Spanish to a person. Its AI assistant, the first thing a member sees, cannot.
For comparison, we also tried the AI chatbots of four small clinics and med spas. All four that were working replied in Spanish when we wrote in Spanish. The general-purpose tools spoke Spanish. The banking ones did not.
Why it matters
No federal law requires a credit union to serve members in Spanish, and language is not a protected class on its own. But language is closely tied to national origin, which is. The CFPB has said that treating consumers differently because of their language can raise fair lending concerns under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. A member who asks about a loan in Spanish and is turned away by the bot gets less information, or none, than a member who asks in English.
Marketing in Spanish while the 24/7 channel refuses Spanish can also raise questions about unfair or deceptive practices. And New Jersey's disparate impact rules look at the effect of a practice, not the intent behind it.
None of this means these credit unions intend to exclude anyone. Most likely, nobody tested the bot in Spanish before it went live. That is the point: an assistant that answers thousands of members needs checking in the languages your members actually speak, not only in English.