On September 15th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released an Outline of Proposals Under Consideration for a small business lending data collection and reporting rulemaking pursuant to Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 1071 amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require financial institutions to collect certain data regarding applications for credit for women-owned, [...]
Download This Article In a recent Complaint filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) against Townstone Financial, Inc. (Townstone), the CFPB alleges that Townstone violated Fair Lending laws by redlining certain geographic areas. The Bureau also asserts that Townstone engaged in practices that discouraged, on the basis of race, potential applicants living in or [...]
In recent days, both Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest lender, and The National Association of Realtors (NAR), the nations’ largest trade organization, have called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to withdraw its proposed rule to amend the HUD interpretation of the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard. Bill Emerson, vice chairman of Quicken Loans, [...]
On June 29th, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its Semiannual Risk Perspective report, finding that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic will stress institutions' financial performance this year. The report also said that compliance risk is on the rise, in part because of federal programs related to the CARES Act and [...]
Lending institutions play a unique and vital role in helping consumers and businesses recover from heavy economic hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses are affected by the pandemic in differing ways: for some it means a slight reprieve in activity and possible opportunity to implement system improvements. For lenders, however, it often necessitates rapidly processing [...]
Last week, Santander Consumer USA Holdings, which is part of Santander Bank, settled with 33 states and the District of Columbia through payments of $550 million. The settlement was the culmination of its long-standing effort to resolve compliance problems that arose six to ten years ago, from 2010 to 2014. Broadly, the accusation was that [...]
On April 27, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a blog post about Fair Lending to minority and women-owned businesses. The blog entry explains the purpose of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). These loans are designed to allow small businesses to [...]
Banking regulators are temporarily reducing their examination schedules. At first glance, this reduction may seem to indicate that it is appropriate to ditch your compliance hat until the current quarantine period is behind us. Hold on to that hat though – while the examination schedule is delayed, regulatory requirements continue, and this new environment [...]
On April 6, 2020, a white paper on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic was published publicly and addressed to the current director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, the Bureau), Kathleen Kraninger. This white paper – authored by Richard Cordray (former CFPB director), Diane Thompson (former CFPB deputy assistant director of regulations) and [...]
On July 29, 2019 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced its approval of an agreement between the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) and OneWest Bank. This complaint settles allegations by CRC that the bank discriminated against minority communities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The complaint filed with the HUD in 2017 [...]
