On January 7, the NYDFS finalized a rule amending its banking regulations to implement New York’s state Community Reinvestment Act requirements for certain nonbank mortgage lenders. The rule requires DFS to review how covered mortgage bankers serve the credit needs of their communities.Continue Reading New York Finalizes CRA-Style “Equitable Access” Rules for Mortgage Bankers
On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction sought by several short-term lenders challenging amendments to the City of Dallas’s short-term lending ordinance. Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Upholds Dallas Fee-Cap & Installment Limits for Short-Term Loans
On June 2, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania terminated a 2022 consent order and dismissed with prejudice the CFPB and DOJ’s redlining lawsuit against a nonbank mortgage lender. The motion to terminate the consent order, filed jointly by the CFPB and DOJ, asserted that the company had fulfilled its monetary and injunctive obligations under the order.Continue Reading CFPB and DOJ Terminate Another Redlining Consent Order
On May 28, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to terminate its redlining consent order against a New Jersey-based bank. The five-year order, entered in September 2022, resolved allegations that the banks violated the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act by engaging in a pattern of unlawful redlining in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods across the Newark metropolitan area.Continue Reading DOJ Moves to End $13 Million Redlining Consent Order
On April 23, the White House issued an Executive Order entitled Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, directing federal agencies to “eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.” The Executive Order marks a potential shift in how federal fair lending laws will be enforced across the financial services sector.Continue Reading White House Executive Order Eliminates Disparate-Impact Liability Enforcement
The CFPB has recently dismissed two more enforcement actions—one against a major credit reporting agency and another against a lease-to-own financing provider. Both lawsuits involved allegations of abusive, unfair, and deceptive acts and practices. Continue Reading CFPB Drops Two More Major Lawsuits
On March 10, 2025, the CFPB informed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that it will proceed with litigation against a short-term installment lender and its subsidiary for alleged violations of the Military Lending Act (MLA). The lawsuit alleges that the lender violated the MLA and a 2013 administrative consent order by issuing loans to military service members with interest rates exceeding the MLA’s 36% cap, included mandatory arbitration provisions in loan contracts, and failed to provide required disclosures. The CFPB further asserts that these practices continued despite a prior CFPB enforcement order against the lender’s predecessor.Continue Reading CFPB Moves Forward with Military Lending Act Enforcement Against Installment Lender
On January 17, 2025, the CFPB filed a complaint against an Illinois-based non-depository mortgage lender for allegedly engaging in discriminatory practices. The CFPB alleges the lender engaged in improper redlining by deliberately excluding certain neighborhoods from its services based on the racial and ethnic composition of those areas, in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). Continue Reading CFPB Takes Action Against Illinois Mortgage Lender for Redlining Violations
On January 7, 2025, the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced that a non-depository mortgage lender has agreed to pay $1.75 million in connection with allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by redlining predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.Continue Reading DOJ Announces Third Settlement with a Non-Depository Lender to Resolve Alleged Redlining Claims
On November 1, the CFPB filed a proposed stipulated final order that would resolve the Bureau’s pending lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against a nonbank mortgage lender and broker for allegedly engaging in redlining and other discriminatory lending practices. In its underlying complaint filed in 2020, the CFPB alleged that the defendant violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) by making statements in podcasts, radio shows, and marketing materials that discouraged prospective African-American applicants in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs from applying for mortgage loans.Continue Reading CFPB Reaches Settlement in Redlining Suit Against Nonbank Mortgage Lender
On June 25, the CFPB issued its annual fair lending report covering its fair lending activity in 2023. The Bureau noted that in 2023 it undertook 28 fair lending examinations and announced four enforcement actions. It separately referred 18 matters to the Department of Justice. Continue Reading Key Takeaways from the CFPB’s 2023 Fair Lending Report