The federal financial watchdog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), finalized a rule that will roll back fair lending enforcement by eliminating a key tool that has long ensured equal and fair access to credit, loans, and homeownership.
Under the Trump administration, the CFPB announced that it will no longer use disparate impact, a statistical analysis used to identify discriminatory lending practices under the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).
Congress defines disparate-impact discrimination as occurring when a seemingly neutral policy or action causes a disproportionate and unjustified negative harm to a group, regardless of intent.
Democratic Lawmakers Push Back On CFPB’s Rule Change Over Discrimination
Consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers have defended the law and written letters stating that eliminating disparate impact would make it harder to bring discrimination claims, especially as more lenders rely on artificial intelligence in credit decisions.
“This would open the floodgates for discrimination in all consumer lending, including mortgages, credit cards, and car loans,” Democratic senators wrote to Vought in February over the proposed rule.
They continued, “It would also stop lenders from establishing Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCP), which are designed to expand homeownership access in those same marginalized communities. This proposal would gut longstanding civil rights protections, widen the wealth gap, and increase housing, credit card, car loan, and other borrowing costs by undermining ECOA’s core purpose of ensuring everyone has fair and nondiscriminatory access to credit.”
The rule change comes just over a year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“The only sliver of good news is that courts may well see through this and reject the CFPB’s latest unlawful action,” Brad Lipton, Director of the Corporate Power and Financial Regulation Program at the Progressive Think Tank, The Roosevelt Institute, told Bloomberg Law.
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Source: Black Enterprise
