FNF Fidelity National Financial Inc

Program Aims to Recruit, Train and Retain Staff to Better Serve Fast Growing Multicultural Communities 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 http://www.fnf.com/ . DATASOURCE: Fidelity National Financial CONTACT: Sharon Sim-Krause, , or Mary Placido, , both of GolinHarris, +1-415-274-7902, for Fidelity National Financial Web site: http://www.fnf.com/

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