Redlining Isn’t What it Used To Be
Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending
As previously reported, this summer the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a housing discrimination charge under the Fair Housing Act against an appraisal company, individual appraiser, appraisal...more
On October 15, 2024, the CFPB and DOJ filed a complaint and proposed consent order against the Company, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and its implementing Regulation B,...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
Saying that reverse redlining is a form of discrimination, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has refused to dismiss a discrimination case alleging that Texas developer Colony Ridge specifically...more
In a major win for the CFPB, in CFPB v. Townstone Financial, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (7th Circuit) recently held that the Regulation B provision prohibiting discrimination under the Equal...more
On December 8, 2023, oral arguments were held before a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the CFPB v. Townstone Financial case, in which the CFPB alleges that Townstone Financial, a...more
Recently the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a proposed consent order with Ameris Bank to resolve allegations of redlining from 2016 through 2021 in majority Black and Hispanic areas in the Bank’s Jacksonville,...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement agreement with Washington Trust Company, of Westerly (WTC) to resolve claims that WTC redlined majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Rhode Island....more
On August 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its eighth redlining settlement under its Combatting Redlining Initiative. The settlement between the DOJ and the American Bank of Oklahoma, which originated from a...more
Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve Board’s (“FRB”) Vice Chair for Supervision, delivered remarks, titled “Furthering the Vision of the Fair Housing Act,“ to the National Fair Housing Alliance 2023 National Conference earlier...more
On March 15, the New York attorney general announced a settlement with a real estate brokerage firm to resolve claims that it allegedly discriminated against Black, Hispanic, and other homebuyers of color on Long Island. ...more
On March 17, HUD announced the submission of a final rule—Reinstatement of HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard—which would rescind the agency’s 2020 regulation governing Fair Housing Act (FHA or the Act) disparate impact...more
On February 14, CFPB Fair Lending Director Patrice Ficklin joined senior leaders from the FDIC, HUD, NCUA, Federal Reserve Board, DOJ, OCC, and FHFA in submitting a joint letter to The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) urging the...more
On January 12, the DOJ announced a more than $31 million settlement with a national bank over redlining allegations. Calling the action the largest redlining settlement agreement in the department’s history...more
On January 12, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced at a Brookings Institute event that HUD is creating a process that people seeking FHA financing can use to request a review of their appraisal if they believe the results...more
On December 19, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of a national bank with respect to discriminatory lending allegations brought by the County of Cook in Illinois...more
The Justice Department announced that it has entered into an agreement with Lakeland Bank to settle the DOJ’s claims that Lakeland engaged in unlawful redlining in the Newark, New Jersey metropolitan area. The DOJ’s lawsuit...more
On June 21, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and settlement agreement in federal court alleging that a social media company is in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619,...more
On June 25 the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would re-codify its 2013 regulation subjecting the practices and policies of homeowners insurers to scrutiny under a disparate impact...more
One of the Biden administration’s first actions was a January 25, 2021, executive order on Redressing Our Nation’s and the Federal Government’s History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies, whereby the White House...more
Every change in presidential administration results in shifts to agencies’ policy priorities and enforcement efforts. In a Biden Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”), in particular,...more
Welcome! Welcome to August’s issue of All Consuming. This month, we are taking a deep dive into discharges in bankruptcy and then reviewing several top news stories in the world of consumer finance. We hope you find value...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently issued a statement announcing that it “has worked with Google to improve Google’s online advertising policies to better align them with requirements of the Fair...more
The U.S. Department of Justice announced last Thursday that it had reached an agreement with First Merchants Bank, an Indiana state-chartered bank, to settle the redlining lawsuit that the DOJ filed against the bank on June...more