Wild Times for the Community Reinvestment Act
Regulatory Rollback: Impact on Industry of CFPB's Withdrawal of Fair Lending and UDAAP Informal Guidance — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Fair Lending Shake-Ups: CFPB Vacates Townstone Settlement, FHFA Ends GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The FinReg Frontier: AI and Machine Learning in Consumer Finance — The Consumer Finance Podcast
UDAAP and Fair Lending Developments: 2024 Year-in-Review and 2025 Predictions — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Uncovering Disparities: The CFPB's Small Business Lending Study – The Consumer Finance Podcast
Fintech Focus Podcast | Reconciling AI With Fair Lending and Consumer Protection
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: State Fair Access and Debanking Laws Bring Country’s Political and Cultural Divisions to the Fore
Redlining Isn’t What it Used To Be
Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending
Keeping up with all the new regulations
Troutman Pepper Attorneys Update Fair Lending Handbook for the American Association of Bank Directors - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Fair Lending 101 for Debt Collectors - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Corporate Law Report: U.S. Manufacturing, Social Media, Online Endorsements, Hart Scott Rodino, More
On July 23, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied the Department of Justice’s motion to terminate a consent order requiring a Pennsylvania bank to implement a five-year fair lending...more
On May 28, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to terminate its redlining consent order against a New Jersey-based bank. The five-year order, entered in September 2022, resolved allegations that the banks violated...more
Banks play a pivotal role in the economic wellbeing of our nation and local communities. Banks do this by being “financial intermediaries” facilitating the flow of funds between savers and borrowers. This obligation is so...more
President Trump signed Executive Order 14281, “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy on April 23, 2025”. The EO proclaims a policy goal of eliminating “the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the...more
This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) released a memo to staff outlining its new supervision and enforcement priorities for 2025....more
The CFPB is rescinding its existing enforcement and supervision priority documents, according to a memo sent to bureau staff by CFPB Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta....more
On March 26, the CFPB, in its first press release in over 50 days, announced its intention to seek to vacate a redlining settlement previously imposed on a nonbank retail-mortgage creditor and broker based in Chicago. As...more
On March 19, 2025, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-08 titled “Rescinding Multiple Appraisal Policy Related Mortgagee Letters.” As the title suggests, FHA rescinded three mortgagee...more
On March 12, Arkansas enacted HB 1466 which amends the state’s Fair Mortgage Lending Act. HB 1466 introduces a set of definitions and regulatory requirements for mortgage brokers, bankers, servicers, loan officers, and...more
With the change in administration, enforcement actions at the federal level are expected to decrease, reflecting President Trump’s focus on deregulation. Indeed, during President Trump’s first term, the number of enforcement...more
Following lengthy litigation, the CFPB is attempting to close the books on its case against Townstone Financial alleging discriminatory lending practices and redlining African American neighborhoods in Chicago....more
On October 29, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the state’s Division on Civil Rights (DCR) released a report detailing the findings of a multi-year investigation into Republic First Bank (Republic) and its...more
On October 10, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a landmark redlining settlement with Citadel Federal Credit Union (Citadel), marking the first such agreement with a credit union in the DOJ’s history. This...more
The Justice Department announced that Citadel Federal Credit Union has agreed to pay more than $6.5 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic...more
Recent news stories explain the criticism of Senator Warren and Congresswoman Waters directed at banks that are litigating the 2023 CRA rule. But perhaps their frustration should be focused on the regulators who have...more
Previously, I have written about regulatory enforcement of anti-redlining regulations. I pointed out the problems and potentially misleading statistical conclusions caused by the application of what is called a “REMA” or...more
In a recent podcast, Len and Dean discuss the June 10 article "Manufacturing Fair Lending" from National Mortgage Professional, which delves into the "Modern Theory of Redlining" introduced by bank regulators after AG...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
As any bank professional regulatory compliance professional knows redlining is the hottest issue today and has been since Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the “Combatting Redlining Initiative” in October 2021. Since...more
On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Townstone Financial, Inc. that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) protects prospective applicants and...more
In a recent article in National Mortgage Professional entitled "Manufacturing Fair Lending”, former chief of the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section at the Department of Justice under Attorney General William Barr, Paul...more
In this podcast episode, Dean and Len discuss the timely issue of appraisal discrimination and bias within the context of Fair Lending. Dean highlights the FFIEC's recent guidance on mitigating risks related to discriminatory...more
In emails in recent months we've warned bankers about the extremely aggressive enforcement of anti-redlining policies. This is becoming more and more obvious every day as more banks get threatened with referral to the DOJ....more
Since October 2021, the prudential bank regulators in concert with the Department of Justice have been pursuing the “Anti-Redlining Initiative” announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland on October 21, 2021. During that...more
On May 13, HUD announced an agreement with a mortgage lender to resolve allegations of Fair Housing Act violations. According to the redacted agreement, a complaint was filed with HUD last August accusing the mortgage company...more