On October 15, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they reached a settlement with Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation (Fairway). This settlement...more
On September 13, 2024, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss in CFPB v. Colony Ridge, Case No. 4:23-cv-04729....more
In this month's article, we share some of our top "bites" for the prior and current month covered during the July 2024 webinar....more
On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit held in Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection v. Townstone Financial, Inc., that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) prohibits discriminatory conduct,...more
In this article, we share a timeline of our monthly "bites" for 2023 applicable to mortgage along with some additional related information. ...more
On August 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its eighth redlining settlement under its Combatting Redlining Initiative. The settlement between the DOJ and the American Bank of Oklahoma, which originated from a...more
As shown by a new report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) is focusing its fair lending work on mortgage origination and pricing, small business lending, redlining, and the use of artificial...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
On May 31, 2023, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), announced that it had entered into a settlement with a Philadelphia based bank and trust company over allegations that the bank had engaged in unlawful redlining...more
On April 3, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a notice to appeal a district court’s decision to dismiss its complaint against Townstone Finance, Inc. (Townstone), a nonbank mortgage lender, and its...more
On February 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its sixth redlining settlement under its Combatting Redlining Initiative. This most recent case involves an agreement between the DOJ and Ohio-based Park National...more
On February 3, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted Defendants Townstone Financial, Inc., a mortgage broker/lender, and Barry Sturner’s, Townstone’s owner, motion to dismiss the...more
On January 12, the DOJ announced a more than $31 million settlement with a national bank over redlining allegations. Calling the action the largest redlining settlement agreement in the department’s history...more
On July 27, the CFPB and DOJ proposed a settlement with a nonbank mortgage lender for its discriminatory “redlining” lending practices against minority families living in the greater Philadelphia area...more
A&B Abstract: On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) entered into a settlement with Trident Mortgage Company (“Trident”), resolving allegations under the...more
For the past six months, we have received calls from banks and non-depository mortgage lenders regarding Department of Justice (“DOJ”) investigations into mortgage lending discrimination. These DOJ inquiries are bypassing the...more
A&B ABstract: Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) brought its first ever redlining case against a non-depository institution....more
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...more
On May 8, 2018, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) settled its fair lending “redlining” lawsuit against Minnesota-based KleinBank, a family-owned bank with assets of more than $1.9 billion. The settlement follows...more
The Independent Community Bankers of America issued a statement calling on the Trump administration “to rein in the overzealous application of fair lending laws.” ICBA stated that community banks are threatened by a recent...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
Late last year, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) brought a joint action against Hudson City Savings Bank (“Hudson Bank”) for redlining. Hudson Bank, based in New Jersey,...more
On June 29, 2016, BancorpSouth Bank announced a proposed settlement and consent order with the CFPB and the U.S. Department of Justice of charges that the bank’s mortgage lending practices violated the Equal Credit...more
The CFPB and DOJ recently announced a proposed consent order with BancorpSouth Bank to settle charges that the bank’s mortgage lending practices violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act....more
The Federal Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) requires regulated financial institutions to focus on meeting “the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered.” See 12 U.S.C. § 2901(a)(3). Under the CRA,...more