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On April 14, 2017, the CFPB released its fifth Fair Lending Report reflecting the Bureau’s rulemaking, supervision, enforcement, interagency collaboration, and outreach activities for 2016 as well as its fair lending priorities for 2017. Perhaps most importantly for financial institutions is the Report’s identification of fair lending priorities for 2017, which includes redlining, mortgage and student loan servicing, and small business lending, as well as the method for identifying fair lending priorities. The Report notes

On April 13, 2017 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published 150-page proposed update to Regulation C. The changes should help financial institutions comply with the 2015 HMDA Final Rule by clarifying the information they are required to collect and report about their mortgage lending. The proposal contains a number of clarifications, technical corrections, and minor changes to the HMDA regulation. These include clarifying certain key terms, such as “temporary financing” and “automated underwriting system.” The

Recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Nationstar Mortgage LLC, of Coppell, Texas, to pay a $1.75 million civil penalty for violating the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) by consistently failing to report accurate data about mortgage transactions for 2012 through 2014, and to take the necessary steps to improve its compliance management and prevent future violations. This is the largest HMDA penalty ever imposed by the CFPB. According to 2014 data, Nationstar was

On March 10 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an agreement with Alpine Bank & Trust resolving allegations the Northern Illinois-based lender discriminated against African American and Hispanic mortgage applicants. HOPE Fair Housing Center of Wheaton, Illinois filed a complaint with HUD claiming the lender’s business service areas excluded majority African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful for any person or other entity whose business includes residential real estate-related

On June 6 2016 the CFPB sued Intercept Corporation, a payment processor, and two of its executives, Bryan Smith and Craig Dresser, for allegedly enabling unauthorized and other illegal withdrawals from consumer accounts by their clients. In the suit filed in federal district court, the CFPB alleges that Intercept turned a blind eye to blatant warning signs of potential fraud or lawbreaking by its clients. These include actions by federal and state authorities, and sky-high