Redlining Isn’t What it Used To Be
Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending
Saying that reverse redlining is a form of discrimination, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has refused to dismiss a discrimination case alleging that Texas developer Colony Ridge specifically...more
To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week...more
As discussed here, on February 3, 2023, an Illinois federal court dismissed a case brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) in 2020 against Townstone Financial, Inc., a Chicago mortgage lender, for...more
On April 3, the FDIC made public for the first time its Community Reinvestment Act Performance Evaluation for a bank from September 2022. The bank focused on residential and commercial lending and had $1.15 billion in assets...more
In this article, we share a timeline of our monthly "bites" for 2023 applicable to mortgage along with some additional related information. ...more
Last month, the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a joint statement that reminded financial institutions that all credit applicants are protected from discrimination on the...more
The joint statement provides helpful guidance on the civil rights implications of considering an individual’s immigration status under the ECOA. On October 12, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and...more
In September 2023, the CFPB updated its UDAAP Examination Manual to remove the changes it made in March 2022 which provided that unfair acts or practices encompassed discriminatory conduct, even in circumstances to which...more
Minnesota has expanded its fair lending statute to prohibit discriminating against a person in the extension of credit or in the requirements of obtaining credit because of gender identity. Prior to this amendment, the...more
On June 14, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed its opening brief in its appeal of a U.S. district court’s decision in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Townstone Mortgage (Townstone). The CFPB’s...more
The CFPB has filed its opening brief in its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from the district court’s decision in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Townstone Mortgage (Townstone). In the case,...more
In Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection v. Townstone Financial, Inc., the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) brought suit against Townstone, a mortgage broker/lender, and its co-founder and chief executive,...more
In this article, we share a timeline of our monthly "bites" for 2022 applicable to consumers protected by nondiscrimination and military protection laws. The CFPB has historically been particularly active with respect to...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made news this year when it announced that it considered discrimination to be illegal as an "unfair" practice, including in situations where fair lending laws do not apply. In March,...more
While credit-related products have long been subject to the anti-discrimination requirements of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), providers of non-credit financial products, such as payments, credit reporting services,...more
In the largest fair lending enforcement action in several years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on August 30 announced simultaneous settlements with a national banking...more
The Department of Justice recently announced that it had settled a lawsuit filed in 2019 that alleged a Maryland used car dealership discriminated against African Americans in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by...more
The FTC recently announced a settlement of its lawsuit filed in a New York federal district court against a New York City car dealership and its individual general manager in which the FTC alleged that the defendants...more
The United States and Mexico appear poised to move past a last-minute snag over new language on Labor Department attaches to posts in Mexico. Mexico feared that the diplomats would “act as labor inspectors,” and for a day or...more
This week, two House Financial Services Subcommittees will hold hearings. Today at 2:00PM ET, the Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Subcommittee will convene a hearing entitled, “Ending the Debt Traps in the...more
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...more
In a blog post entitled “How S.2155 (the Bank Lobbyist Act) Facilitates Discriminatory Lending” Professor Adam Levitin claimed that “This bill functionally exempts 85% of US banks and credit unions from fair lending laws in...more
Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn is pushing GM to split its common stock into two classes—one for dividends and the other for all additional earnings—in an effort to boost the carmaker’s market cap. GM’s not on board....more
A Democratic congressman has raised concerns about potentially discriminatory lending practices used by financial technology (fintech) companies that extend credit to small businesses, calling on the Consumer Financial...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently commenced a redlining lawsuit against KleinBank, a state-chartered Minnesota bank subject to the regulatory authority of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The...more