2012 is going to be a big year for Fair Lending issues. In late December 2011 the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into the largest residential fair lending settlement in the agency’s history. The $335 million settlement resulted from the lender charging higher rates and fees to African-American and Hispanic borrowers than non-Hispanic white borrowers. Attorney General Eric Holder has made clear that DOJ is gearing up for additional fair lending suits. DOJ has filed […]
Category: Fair Lending
CFPBs OFFICE OF MINORITY AND WOMEN INCLUSION
Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has established its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI), under the guidance of the CFPB’s OMWI working group. An overarching goal for this working group is to ensure the integration of the OMWI mission throughout the Bureau. Among other requirements, OMWI is charged, by statute, with developing standards for: Equal employment opportunity, workforce diversity, and inclusion at all levels of the agency; Increased participation of minority-owned and […]
ANOTHER MATURNITY CASE
On November 3, 2011 HUD announced (HUD No. 11-261) that it reached an agreement with Luxury Mortgage Corporation (LMC), a mortgage lender based in Stamford, Connecticut, settling accusations that the lender discriminated against a woman by denying her mortgage loan because she was on maternity leave. Under the settlement, LMC agrees to pay the woman who was denied the mortgage $12,000. The settlement is the result of a complaint that was filed by a couple […]
CFPB – NEW OFFICE OF OLDER AMERICANS
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced the selection of Hubert H. (“Skip”) Humphrey III to head up the newly established Office of Older Americans. Humphrey has spent much of his professional life working to protect consumers, serving first as a state Senator and later as Attorney General of Minnesota. He has also worked on behalf of seniors as president of the Minnesota AARP and, until recently, served on AARP’s national board. The Dodd-Frank […]
FAMILIAL STATUS DISCRIMINATION
Between the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act (FHA) lenders must avoid discrimination based on 11 different bases. Usually when we hear of a case of discrimination it involves race, ethnicity or sex. But recently HUD announced a settlement of a discrimination case with a mortgage lender that had engaged in familial status discrimination under the FHA by engaging in discriminatory lending practices against expectant mothers. The FHA protects an applicant from […]