On September 12, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a stipulated proposed order in its suit against the student loan servicer Navient, formerly known as Sallie Mae. If entered, the order will resolve the claims in the CFPB’s January 2017 complaint, which accused Navient of forbearance steering and other breakdowns in its income-driven
Fair Servicing
Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of CFPB’s Funding Mechanism
“Although there may be other constitutional checks on Congress’ authority to create and fund an administrative agency, specifying the source and purpose is all the control the Appropriations Clause requires.” With these words, seven members of the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism and forestalled the possibility that…
Fannie Mae Issues Fair Servicing Best Practices Guide
This week, in line with the CFPB’s ever-increasing focus on fair lending, Fannie Mae issued a Fair Servicing Best Practices Guide to promote “servicer awareness of fair servicing best practices.” Taking a big picture approach, the guide states that servicers should ensure that “all borrowers are treated consistently and fairly throughout the loan servicing…
Navigating the CFPB’s Final Rule on Dodd-Frank Section 1071
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued its final rule to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rule amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), introducing substantial data collection and reporting requirements for small business lenders and finance companies. In this blog post, we delve deeper…
Supreme Court to Decide CFPB’s Validity
Less than three years after the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the CFPB’s appointment structure, the bureau again finds itself before the Court in what could prove the most consequential case for the financial services industry in years. Four months ago, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Community Financial Services Association of…
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Invalidates Small-Dollar Rule, Throws the Future of the CFPB Into Question
On October 19, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Community Financial Services Association of America, et al. v. CFPB (CFSA v. CFPB) invalidating the CFPB’s Payday, Vehicle-Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans rule (Small-Dollar Rule). The three-member panel decision calls into question the future viability of the CFPB…
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Direct Collection of Borrower Information to Further Fair Lending and Fair Servicing Aims
Two recent announcements by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) will push the mortgage servicing industry to increase its collection and maintenance of consumer demographic and language preference data.
On May 3, 2022, the FHFA announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) will require lenders submitting loans to the GSEs to use…
CFPB Provides New Guidance on Discrimination in Algorithmic Credit Decisions
As we have repeatedly discussed this year in our Financial Services Perspectives blog, the current leadership of the CFPB has placed a significant emphasis upon fair lending. Seemingly once a month, or even more frequently at times, Director Rohit Chopra has announced a new initiative concerning fair lending and discrimination in the financial services industry.
Banking Regulators Publish Proposed Rule to Update Community Reinvestment Act Regulations
On May 5, 2022, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively the agencies) issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking (the Proposed CRA Rule) that proposes changes to the way the agencies evaluate a bank’s performance under the…
CFPB Director Addresses the Final Report of the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity
The current leadership of the CFPB has not been shy about highlighting the importance of fair lending—and it is becoming increasingly clear that fair lending and equity within the financial services industry is one of the CFPB’s greatest priorities under Director Rohit Chopra. Just last month, the CFPB released a blog post to discuss possible…