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 August 15, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Arizona Attorney General announced a proposed settlement with an Arizona-based vehicle dealership to resolve allegations that the dealership misrepresented prices...more
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the State of Arizona announced a joint action against Coulter Motor Company, an Arizona-based motor vehicle dealership, and its former general manager, for allegedly engaging...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made news this year when it announced that it considered discrimination to be illegal as an "unfair" practice, including in situations where fair lending laws do not apply. In March,...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a $3.38 million settlement with Passport Automotive Group (Passport) and two of its officers over allegations that the automotive group violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and...more
Players in the auto finance industry have been watching the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ping-pong over the last several years regarding disparate impact theories under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The disparate...more
Part Three: Risk Reward Will Always be Part of the Subprime Future - We resume our conversation where we left off on Part Two with a question citing the Taskforce report with recommendations for improved financial...more
On January 26, 2021, the FTC sent its annual letter to the CFPB reporting on the FTC’s activities related to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and Regulation B. The Bureau leverages the FTC’s annual letter for its own...more
The Department of Justice recently announced that it had settled a lawsuit filed in 2019 that alleged a Maryland used car dealership discriminated against African Americans in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made it clear that it will continue to target auto finance lenders as one of its top supervisory and enforcement priorities in the Fair Lending Report of the Bureau of Consumer...more
The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Civil Rights and Social Justice Section, State and Local Government Law Section, and Commission on Homelessness and Poverty has proposed a resolution affecting automobile dealers that will...more
If you’ve followed the status of the CFPB’s enforcement actions under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act related to auto dealer finance charge participation, you probably would have concluded that those cases are unlikely to...more
With the stroke of a pen, President Trump nullified the 2013 informal guidance on “Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act” (Guidance) issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...more
Yesterday afternoon, President Trump signed into law S.J. Res. 57, the joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that disapproves the CFPB’s Bulletin 2013-2 regarding “Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with...more
We previously reported that Congress might have the opportunity to disapprove the CFPB’s disparate impact theory of assignee liability for so-called auto dealer “markup” disparities because the CFPB Bulletin describing its...more
On April 18, the Senate voted to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) 2013 Guidance on Fair Lending Practices to Indirect Auto Lenders (2013 Guidance) using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The vote was...more
As we reported recently, the Government Accountability Office has determined that CFPB Bulletin 2013-02 on dealer pricing in indirect auto finance (“Dealer Pricing Bulletin” or “Bulletin”) is a “rule” subject to review under...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. The FTC has authority to enforce the ECOA and Reg B as to...more
As of now, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) prohibits dealers from unintentional, or “disparate impact,” discrimination in setting dealer reserves in auto financing. This disparate impact can result from policies or...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recent proposal to exercise its authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to supervise large nonbank automobile lenders may have finance companies working to enforce...more
In response to a recent joint enforcement action by the CFPB and Department of Justice alleging violations of the Equal Opportunity Credit Act, and its implementing regulation, Regulation B, the National Automobile Dealers...more
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has issued fair credit guidance to assist auto dealers in complying with the CFPB’s March 2013 indirect fair lending...more
In March 2013, the U.S. Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that it would closely scrutinize dealer reserve (“markup”) practices. The federal concern is that dealer markups may result in an illegal disparate...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently settled a fair lending lawsuit against Union Auto Sales, Inc., a California automobile dealer. This means that, once again, a DOJ attempt to use disparate impact evidence to...more
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau continues to spread its wings in the enforcement arena. It is an agency born and confined in political controversy. ...more
I want to thank Jeff Sovern over at the Public Citizen Consumer Law & Policy Blog for having an interesting back-and-forth with me over the last week about the application of the disparate impact theory of liability to dealer...more