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Banks Should Steel Themselves for Fair Lending Game-Changer
Warren Traiger authored, "Banks Should Steel Themselves for Fair Lending Game-Changer" in American Banker on August 12, 2014. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal to increase the categories of mortgage data collected and reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act is, in the...
ArticlesThey're Not All Bad Guys: Mortgage Bankers Seeking Bank Charters
Banking presents opportunities for non-depository mortgage companies seeking to boost competitiveness and expand market share. By acquiring or establishing a bank, a mortgage company can enjoy advantages over nonbank lenders, including access to cheap and reliable funding through FDIC-insured...
ArticlesPom v. Coke Will Impact Financial Services Too
Legal and compliance departments, take note: the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pom Wonderful LLC v.Coca-Cola Co. confirms that even if an institution’s conduct meets the specific requirements established by the federal agency responsible for implementing one federal consumer protection...
ArticlesThe CRA is Not a Fair Lending Law
The ongoing regulatory emphasis on enforcing the anti-discrimination provisions of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Fair Housing Act has had an unintended and counterproductive consequence. It is undermining the legislative rationale of the Community Reinvestment Act and threatening its...
ArticlesProcedural Protections for Individuals in Financial Enforcement Actions
In the five years since the financial crisis began, critics have argued that regulators aren’t doing enough to hold individual actors accountable for their conduct leading up to the crisis. These critics, however, may soon be appeased, with regulators promising to name names and hold individuals...
ArticlesA New Defense Against Municipal Disparate Impact Claims
Banks and non-bank lenders face a variety of fair lending disparate impact claims, which allege unintentional and unfavorable disparate impacts of otherwise neutral policies or practices on minority borrowers. Regulators, consumer groups and the mortgage industry have long debated whether disparate...
ArticlesHUD's Equal Access Rule: A New Chapter in Fair Lending Compliance
For 45 years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been charged with administering the Fair Housing Act's (FHA) prohibitions on housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. In 1988, the Fair Housing Amendments Act modified the FHA to (1...
ArticlesWhat Regulators Must Consider Before Punishing Individual Bankers
“Why aren’t we holding the individuals responsible for the financial crisis accountable?” It is a question that has been repeated so many times over the last five years that no one seems to expect an answer. But the question was raised again recently by Benjamin Lawsky, head of the New York State...
ArticlesCFPB in Focus: Navigating Investigational Hearings
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been actively engaged in investigations of banks and nonbanks since it was established nearly three years ago. To further its mission “to ensure that consumer financial markets actually work for people,” the bureau has stated that it will use “strong and...
ArticlesThe British (Financial Regulatory Principles) Are Coming!
Regulation of financial products and services in the U.S. historically has relied on rules-based regulatory policy, governing business processes including disclosures relating to terms, pricing, structure and marketing. The U.K. has been a leader in applying principles-based regulation, which...
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