A&B ABstract: On Friday, in the CFPB v. Townstone Financial fair lending case, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed with prejudice the complaint filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), holding that the plain language of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) does not prohibit discrimination against prospective applicants. […]
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)
Is the DOJ (De Facto) Enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act?
A&B Abstract: Furthering the Justice Department’s Combating Redlining Initiative, the Department of Justice has announced another redlining settlement. But this settlement is different – this one involves a bank that has received top marks by its prudential regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), for its compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a statute […]
Joint Trade Associations Reject the CFPB’s “Discrimination-Unfairness” Theory
In a June 28 letter to Director Chopra and accompanying White Paper and press release, the ABA, CBA, ICBA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) to rescind recent revisions made to its UDAAP examination manual that had effectuated the CFPB’s controversial theory that alleged […]
CFPB Continues Scrutiny of Algorithmic Technology
On May 26, 2022 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a Consumer Financial Protection Circular stating that creditors utilizing algorithmic tools in credit making decisions must provide “statements of specific reasons to applicants against whom adverse action is taken” pursuant to ECOA and Regulation B. The CFPB previously stated that circulars are policy statements meant […]
CFPB’s SBREFA Outline on Automated Valuation Models Rekindles Debate over Disparate Impact Liability under the ECOA
Section 1473(q) of the Dodd-Frank Act (now codified at 12 U.S.C. § 3354(q)) amended the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”) to instruct the CFPB, Fed, OCC, FDIC, NCUA, and FHFA (collectively, the “agencies”) to jointly develop regulations for quality control standards for automated valuation models (“AVMs”), defined as “any computerized […]