CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
The U.S. Department of Justice announced last Thursday that it had reached an agreement with First Merchants Bank, an Indiana state-chartered bank, to settle the redlining lawsuit that the DOJ filed against the bank on June 13, 2019 simultaneously with a settlement agreement and agreed order.
The agreement represents the second fair lending settlement…
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Doug Jones have sent a letter to the CFPB, Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC expressing concern that fintech and traditional lenders using algorithms in their underwriting processes may be engaging in unlawful discrimination. (Such algorithms are often referred to as “artificial intelligence.”)
In their letter, the Senators reference research results…
The California Reinvestment Coalition has filed a lawsuit against the CFPB in a California federal district court seeking a declaration that the CFPB’s failure to issue regulations implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act violates the Administrative Procedure Act and requiring the CFPB to promptly issue such regulations.
Section 1071 amended the ECOA to require…
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued a “Charge of Discrimination” against Facebook that charges the company “with engaging in discriminatory housing practices in violation of the [provisions of the Fair Housing Act that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin or disability.]” HUD’s Charge (which…
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Facebook has agreed to remove age, gender, and zip code targeting for housing, employment, and credit-related advertisements as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Communications Workers of America, and other plaintiffs.
While Facebook reportedly did not permit advertisers…
The FTC has sent its annual letter to the CFPB reporting on the FTC’s activities related to compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B.
The FTC has authority to enforce the ECOA and Reg. B as to nonbank providers within its jurisdiction. However, like several of the FTC’s prior letters on its…
The CFPB has issued a new annual report covering its fair lending activities during 2017. Since Mick Mulvaney did not become Acting Director until the end of November 2017, the fair lending activities described in the report largely took place under former Director Cordray’s leadership.
The Bureau’s last annual fair lending report under former Director …
While the pace of the CFPB’s fair lending activities has slowed under its new leadership, significant fair lending developments are occurring elsewhere. In this week’s podcast, we discuss several of those developments and their broader implications. Our discussion focuses on New York and Connecticut fair lending developments involving auto finance, a private redlining lawsuit, and…
As part of an investigation launched earlier this year into allegations of redlining in the Philadelphia area, the Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently called on mortgage borrowers and home loan applicants in the Philadelphia area to file complaints with his office “if they believe they may have been victims of redlining or experienced irregularities…
In June 2018, HUD issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) seeking comment on whether its 2013 Fair Housing Act disparate impact rule (Rule) should be revised in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Inclusive Communities decision. Comments on the ANPR were due by August 20, 2018. The Rule is the subject of …
