CFPB’s 2016 Fair Lending Report

On April 14, 2017, the CFPB released its 2016 Fair Lending Report.  Some of the most notable aspects of the report include the identification of the CFPB’s fair lending priorities for 2017, a summary of amendments and developments in CFPB rulemaking, and the discussion on the CFPB’s interagency coordination and outreach programs.

The report identifies 1) redlining, 2) mortgage and student loan servicing, and 3) small lending as the CFPB’s fair lending priorities for 2017.  Specifically, the CFPB states it will continue to focus on investigating and evaluating whether lenders have intentionally discouraged prospective applicants in minority neighborhoods from applying for credit; whether mortgage or student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments face difficulty working out new solutions with servicers because of their race, ethnicity, sex or age; and whether women-owned and minority-owned businesses experience discrimination when applying for credit.

In addition, in the “Rulemaking and Related Guidance” section of this report, the CFPB provides a summary of amendments to Regulation C (which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act) that will become effective on January 1, 2018.  The amendments include, among others, the adoption of a uniform loan-volume threshold for all institutions to determine applicability of Regulation C and changes to requirements for the collection and reporting of information regarding an applicant’s or borrower’s ethnicity, race, and sex.  Further, this section also points out the CFPB’s proposed rule seeking comments on amendments to Regulation B.  Lastly, this section highlights the CFPB’s commitment to finding ways to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires financial institutions to compile, maintain, and submit to the CFPB certain data on credit applications for women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses.

The report finishes by discussing both the interagency coordination and outreach efforts taken by the CFPB.  The CFPB is working with the FTC, DOJ, HUD, FDIC, FRB, NCUA, OCC, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency as part of the Interagency Task Force on Fair Lending to discuss enforcement efforts and coordinate policies.  Additionally, the CFPB is engaged in promoting fair lending compliance and education through issuance of reports to Congress, interagency statements, letters, blog posts, and speeches and presentations at conferences and trainings.

The full report may be found here.