By: Stephanie C. Robinson, Andrew L. Caplan
Recognizing that many creditors will be inclined to originate only “qualified mortgages” (“QM loans”) when the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule takes effect in January, five federal regulators yesterday announced that a creditor’s decision to offer only QM loans will not elevate the creditor’s fair lending risk, absent other factors. Read More
By: Melanie Brody, Tori K. Shinohara
A Maryland-based community bank recently was the target of an OCC enforcement action alleging that the bank discriminated against white men. Specifically, the OCC alleged that First Community Bank discriminated on the basis of race and sex by imposing a ceiling on loan compensation paid by female and minority borrowers, but not by other borrowers. The Bank settled and agreed to make restitution to the aggrieved borrowers. Read More
By: Melanie Brody , Stephanie C. Robinson
On March 21, 2013, the CFPB issued CFPB Bulletin 2013-02: Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. In this bulletin, the CFPB describes its understanding of how the indirect auto lending industry works, and describes its view on how ECOA applies to indirect auto lending—including its theory on lender liability for disparities in dealer markups. The guidance offers advice to bank and nonbank indirect auto lenders within the CFPB’s jurisdiction on how they can limit their indirect auto fair lending risk. Read More
By: Melanie Hibbs Brody, David G. McDonough, Jr.
The Department of Justice recently announced a $21 million settlement with SunTrust Mortgage over allegations that SunTrust’s neutral and non-discriminatory policy of granting loan originators discretionary pricing authority somehow resulted in loans to minority borrowers to be priced higher than loans to White borrowers. DOJ based its case on the disparate impact theory of discrimination; as such, the Department did not allege that SunTrust treated minority borrowers in a disparate or discriminatory manner. Instead, the case follows DOJ’s practice of filing fair lending cases solely on statistical analyses of loan data and without alleging that any person treated a borrower differently because of race or ethnicity. Read More
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