On July 11, the Seventh Circuit held that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1691 et seq. (ECOA) authorizes the imposition of liability for the discouragement of prospective applicants. See CFPB v. Townstone...more
As discussed here, on February 3, 2023, an Illinois federal court dismissed a case brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) in 2020 against Townstone Financial, Inc., a Chicago mortgage lender, for...more
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a report highlighting various unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices it claims to have uncovered during its supervisory examinations from July 2022 to...more
Last month, the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a joint statement that reminded financial institutions that all credit applicants are protected from discrimination on the...more
On June 14, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed its opening brief in its appeal of a U.S. district court’s decision in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Townstone Mortgage (Townstone). The CFPB’s...more
On May 26th, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published a Consumer Financial Protection Circular (the “Circular”), confirming that creditors must provide specific reasons for taking adverse action...more
On May 9, the CFPB released an advisory opinion affirming that ECOA and its implementing rule, Regulation B, protect not only those persons actively seeking credit, but also those who have sought and received credit. The...more
A new essay published in the Emory Law Journal argues that two empirical studies of advertising by certain banks and payday lenders in Houston, Texas indicate that payday lenders steer African Americans and Latinos to their...more
So what happened at the CFPB in the past month? Bite #10 - Trade groups submitted a letter to the House Subcommittee supporting HR 4773 - Nearly 30 trade groups, led by the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), submitted...more
On September 8, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint against an online lender for alleged violations of a 2016 consent order, the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA),...more
On November 30, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) granted a no-action letter to an online loan marketplace company for its artificial intelligence (AI) loan origination and underwriting platform. ...more
The FTC has sent its annual letter to the CFPB reporting on the FTC’s activities related to compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B. ...more
Lenders must comply with a constantly changing series of State and Federal laws and regulations. When loan relationships sour, and lenders seek to collect, borrowers and guarantors may allege the lender has violated some...more
One month after the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance under a Congressional Review Act challenge, President...more
On April 17, 2018, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate would seek to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance. The Senate passed a...more
In May 2017, we blogged about press reports that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had accepted a request from Senator Patrick Toomey for a determination concerning whether the CFPB Bulletin 2013-02, titled “Indirect...more
In its new annual report covering its fair lending activities during 2016, the CFPB identifies the following three areas on which it “will increase our focus” in 2017...more
The CFPB may seek to rely on a recent Seventh Circuit employment discrimination case to support its view that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s (ECOA’s) prohibition against discrimination on the basis of “sex” includes...more
On October 28, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that marked the first time...more
84 House members recently wrote to the CFPB to urge it to expedite rulemaking to implement the small business lending data requirements of Dodd-Frank Section 1071. Section 1071 amended the ECOA to require financial...more
On June 10, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a final rule that will allow it to supervise larger nonbank automobile finance companies. Accompanying the rule, it also published the procedures...more