On July 16, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the federal banking agencies) jointly published a proposed rule...more
7/18/2025
/ Banks ,
Comment Period ,
Community Reinvestment Act ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
CRA ,
Equal Access to Credit ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lenders ,
Loans ,
Low-Income Issues ,
OCC ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements
On July 14, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued Bulletin 2025-16, announcing the removal of references to disparate impact liability from the “Fair Lending” booklet of the Comptroller’s Handbook and...more
7/16/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Banks ,
Borrowers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Deregulation ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
Disparate Impact ,
Equal Access to Credit ,
Executive Orders ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Handbooks ,
Lenders ,
OCC ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Trump Administration
On March 13, New York State introduced proposed legislation titled the Fostering Affordability and Integrity Through Reasonable Business Practices Act (FAIR Act). The proposed legislation seeks to broaden the scope of...more
6/17/2025
/ Abusive Acts ,
Affirmative Defenses ,
Article III ,
Debt Collection ,
Financial Services Industry ,
General-Business ,
Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
New York ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Standing ,
Student Loans ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, Chris Willis and Lori Sommerfield discuss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) recent withdrawal of more than 60 pieces of informal guidance, focusing on those...more
In a significant policy shift under the Trump administration, the new Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte issued an order on March 25, 2025 terminating special purpose credit programs (SPCPs) supported...more
3/28/2025
/ Banks ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
ECOA ,
Equal Access to Credit ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Fannie Mae ,
FHFA ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Freddie Mac ,
GSE ,
Housing Market ,
HUD ,
Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Trump Administration
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered the tolling of compliance deadlines for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) Small Business Lending Data Collection final rule under...more
Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) motion for summary judgment on all Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenges brought...more
8/28/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd ,
Data Collection ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Funding ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Lenders ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
SBA Lending Programs ,
Section 1071 ,
Small Business
On May 1, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced new policies that will allow borrowers to challenge property appraisals they believe to be inaccurate or biased....more
5/3/2024
/ Appraisal ,
Borrowers ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Fannie Mae ,
FHFA ,
Freddie Mac ,
Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
New Regulations ,
Real Estate Market ,
Real Estate Transactions
This week, the Texas Bankers Association, the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Association, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the Longview Chamber of Commerce, the Independent...more
As discussed here, on October 24, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finally issued their long-awaited final rule modernizing how they...more
Last week, the annual Community Reinvestment Act & Fair Lending Colloquium took place in Austin, Texas. Two officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) discussed in detail the “Combatting Redlining Initiative” led by...more
11/21/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lenders ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Race Discrimination ,
Redlining
On October 24, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the agencies) finally issued their long-awaited final...more
10/26/2023
/ Community Reinvestment Act ,
CRA ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
Equal Access to Credit ,
Fair Lending ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FRB ,
Lenders ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
OCC
In the last three weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached two more settlements with lenders under its Combatting Redlining Initiative, which began in October 2021. On September 27, the DOJ announced that...more
10/23/2023
/ Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lenders ,
Loan Applications ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Race Discrimination ,
Redlining ,
Settlement
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) (collectively, the agencies) issued a joint statement on the subject of creditors’ use of immigration status for eligibility...more
10/16/2023
/ Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Applicants ,
Credit History ,
Creditors ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
ECOA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Immigration ,
Immigration Status Discrimination ,
Joint Statements ,
Lenders ,
Loans ,
Regulation B
When using artificial intelligence (AI) or complex credit models, can lenders rely on the checklist of reasons provided in Regulation B sample forms for adverse action notices? According to today’s guidance issued by the...more
9/21/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Applicants ,
Creditors ,
ECOA ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lack of Specificity ,
Lenders ,
Machine Learning ,
Regulation B
On July 27, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a new blog post, positing that cashflow data, broadly defined as the various inflows, outflows, and accumulated amounts in a consumer’s checking and savings...more
7/31/2023
/ Checking Accounts ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit ,
Credit Scores ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lenders ,
Loan Repayment Issues ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Savings Accounts ,
Self-Reporting ,
Underwriting
On December 6, during the 2022 Interagency Fair Lending Webinar, David Evans, a senior fair lending specialist with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), discussed some of the specific discrimination issues...more
On September 28, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber), together with the Longview Chamber of Commerce, American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Independent Bankers Association of Texas, Texas Association...more