WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 17, 2005 - The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) announced today that it has unveiled a Spanish language version of its Web site at http://www.sipc.org/espanol. SIPC maintains a special reserve fund mandated by Congress to protect the customers of insolvent brokerage firms.
SIPC President Stephen Harbeck said: "The Securities Investor Protection Corporation is intent on doing whatever is necessary to communicate clearly and consistently with American investors. Spanish-speaking individuals are far and away the largest group of non-English-speaking investors. We are committed to making sure that investors understand what SIPC does and does not do for them."
Armando J. Bucelo, Jr., who is vice chairman of the SIPC board of directors, said: "In some parts of the United States -- including sections of Florida, Texas and California -- there may be as many investors who speak Spanish that need to know about SIPC as there are English speakers with the same need. In fact, the SIPC board of directors has members from each of these three states and, as a result, is particularly focused on the pressing need for bilingual communication."
Another SIPC board member, Noe Hinojosa, Jr., who is vice chairman/public finance manager, Estrada Hinojosa & Company, Inc., said: "We have looked closely at this Web site to make sure that it will come across in a clear and concise way to Spanish-language speakers. One of our objectives was to make sure that the often complex matters upon which SIPC focuses are translated into what might be called 'plain Spanish' terms."
The new Web site is one of a number of investor education initiatives undertaken recently by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. In late 2004, SIPC launched a Flash animation movie entitled "What is SIPC? How Can We Help You?" at http://www.sipc.org. SIPC also made available last year a major television and radio public service announcement (PSA) campaign in both English and Spanish. Streaming video and audio versions of the English- and Spanish-language PSAs may be viewed on the Web at http://www.sipc.org/news-and-media/in-the-media.
In order to ensure that Spanish-speaking investors would understand its technical workings, SIPC enlisted the services of Consumer Action, a non-profit group founded in San Francisco in 1971 that translates materials into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese, and other languages.