Patrice Ficklin, director of fair lending at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, recently outlined the key areas the CFPB’s fair lending team will be focusing its efforts in 2017.
“For the past five years we have worked hard to ensure that consumers are not excluded from or made to pay more for mortgages, auto loans or credit cards because of their race or ethnicity,” Ficklin wrote. “Our work so far has resulted in over $400 million in payments and credits to over 500,000 consumers who experienced discrimination, and greater efforts by lenders to monitor their own lending practices for possible discrimination.”
Ficklin stated that the bureau has continued to identify new and emerging fair lending risks that will be monitored for compliance. She added that the CFPB will be increasing its focus on the areas of redlining, mortgage and student loan servicing and small business lending.
Specifically for loan servicing, the CFPB will be determining whether borrowers who are behind on their mortgage or student loan payments have more difficulty working out a new solution with the servicer because of their race or ethnicity. As for small business lending, Ficklin stated that Congress has expressed concerns that women-owned and minority-owned businesses may experience discrimination when they apply for credit.
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