CFPB Released 2015 Fair Lending Report

Last week, the CFPB released its fourth Fair Lending Report outlinging the agency’s fair lending activity in 2015.  A few notable items include:

  • Regarding indirect auto, CFPB Director Director Cordray “urge[d] indirect auto lenders to carefully consider the terms of these orders as they evaluate compliance in their own lending programs.”
  • Last year, the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity recovered $108 million in restitution to consumers.
  • Fair lending “risk based prioritization” is focused on mortgage, indirect auto, credit card, and small business lending. Small business data collection is now in the pre-rule stage.
  • The Bureau acknowledged other regulators may consider fair lending findings when assessing Community Reinvestment Act performance, Fair Housing Act evaluations, and merger acquisition applications.
  • Settlement distribution included Synchrony distribution of $200 million; PNC distribution of $35 million to “tens of thousands” of consumers; and Ally distribution of $80 million to over 300,000 borrowers.  Further, Ally paid an additional roughly $40 million to customers based on 2014 alleged practices.
  • Mortgage servicing modules include Limited English proficiency questions.
  • Regarding the CFPB’s BISG methodology, the Bureau indicated it “expects the methodology will continue to evolve as enhancements are identified that further increase accuracy and performance.”
  • At the end of 2015, the Bureau had “a number” of pending investigations and/ or settlement negotiations for redlining, indirect auto lending, and credit cards.
  • CFPB referred eight actions to the DOJ, while the Federal Reserve Board and FDIC referred half that amount of the CFPB at four each.