The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) recently announced that it has entered into an agreement with Hunt Mortgage, a licensed mortgage banker, to address the DFS’s findings that there was a “demonstrable lack of lending to minorities and in majority-minority neighborhoods in Western and Central New York by Hunt Mortgage.”  … Continue Reading

Mortgage origination and servicing continue to be a CFPB supervisory focus.  We review the CFPB’s findings involving the following areas and discuss the findings’ compliance implications: redlining based on nonbank lenders’ advertising practices, improper consideration of applicants’ public assistance income in determining eligibility for mortgage modifications, and violations of servicing requirements relating to providing periodic statements to certain consumers in bankruptcy, force-placed insurance, escrow accounts, and servicing transfers.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has released the Summer 2020 edition of its Supervisory Highlights.  The report discusses the Bureau’s examinations in the areas of consumer reporting, debt collection, deposits, fair lending, mortgage servicing, and payday lending that were completed between September 2019 and December 2019.

Key findings are described below.

Consumer reporting. … Continue Reading

On July 15, 2020, the CPFB filed a complaint in federal court against Townstone Financial, Inc. (Townstone) representing the first ever redlining complaint against a non-bank mortgage lender. The complaint is brought under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), but not the Fair Housing Act (FHA).… Continue Reading

In this podcast, after reviewing what redlining is, we look at which regulators have made it a focus, factors they consider when looking for redlining, whether those factors apply to nonbanks and how nonbanks can assess and reduce risk.  We also discuss emerging theories of digital redlining.

Click here to listen to the podcast.… Continue Reading

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 entered into by the Republican-led DOJ under the Trump administration.  … Continue Reading

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 when looking for a mortgage or home loan.”… Continue Reading

Last week, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, Inc. filed a complaint against Liberty Bank in Connecticut federal district court alleging that the Bank engaged in discriminatory mortgage lending in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.  The complaint describes the Bank as “the eighth-largest conventional home purchase lender and eleventh-largest refinancer in Connecticut.”… Continue Reading

On July 26, 2018, the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB“) announced the launch of the “Consumer Compliance Supervision Bulletin” (the “Bulletin“) and simultaneously published its first issue.  Aimed at “senior executives in banking organizations,” the Bulletin is published by the FRB’s Division of Consumer and Community Affairs with the intent to provide high-level summaries of various consumer protection issues and to enhance the transparency of the Federal Reserve’s consumer compliance supervisory program. … Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of Justice announced earlier this week that it has reached an agreement with KleinBank, a state-chartered Minnesota bank, to settle the redlining lawsuit that the DOJ filed against the bank in January 2017, only a week before President Trump’s inauguration.  The agreement represents the first fair lending settlement entered into by the DOJ under the Trump administration.… Continue Reading