The CFPB has made a concerted effort to make its programs and services accessible to financial consumers with limited proficiency in English. While this paradigm is noteworthy on its own, Paul Hastings, et al feel this could be a signal of things to come: While these recent agency activities are noteworthy developments in their own [...]
In the CFPB’s most recent Supervisory Highlights, released in mid March, one line item of note for Fair Lending violations was a rulling that a lender practiced deceptive and harmful advertising. In the highlighted case, the lender’s marketing materials contained written statements regarding the prohibition on non-employment sources of income, and discouraged applicants who received [...]
Among the round of CRA ratings released for April 2015, the 2015 performance evaluation (PE) of Belmont Savings Bank (Belmont) highlights how a poor evaluation under the Community Development (CD) test can overshadow satisfactory lending to low- and moderate-income (LMI) geographies and borrowers: Overall, Belmont’s level of CD lending since the previous evaluation demonstrates poor [...]
The long-delayed acquisition of Hudson City Bancorp (Hudson City) by M&T Bank Corp. (M&T) has hit another roadblock due to compliance issues. While the deal has already been delayed since 2012 due to concerns over M&T’s AML controls, a CFPB examination of Hudson City’s Fair Lending compliance has introduced new complications into the pending transaction: [...]
The community bank segment has struggled since the crisis to gain momentum in an evolving mortgage market. While drastic changes, such as bank failures and mergers, were not unexpected outcomes from the mortgage crisis, community banks were especially hard hit compared to their larger competitors during the recovery. Specifically, the myriad new regulations born out [...]
