Fair Lending

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken a highly visible step into the national debate over “debanking” by sending warning letters to several large payment networks and financial services providers, reminding them that deplatforming or denying customers access to financial products or services due to political or religious beliefs could violate their existing obligations under Section 5 of the FTC Act. The FTC’s letters signal a sharpened enforcement focus on how financial services firms manage account closures, suspensions, and access to services, particularly when political or religious views are implicated.

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, Chris Willis and Lori Sommerfield unpack the rapid reshaping of the fair lending and UDAAP regulatory enforcement landscape as part of the Year in Review and Look Ahead series. They cover the federal government’s efforts to roll back use of the disparate impact theory, reduce redlining and other enforcement actions, and implement the new debanking initiative, along with the CFPB’s evolving expectations concerning ECOA and Section 1071, and growing state-level oversight as state attorneys general, state regulators, and new state AI/disparate impact regimes fill the federal gap. With long statutes of limitations and 2026 rulemakings ahead, they underscore why financial institutions cannot relax fair lending and UDAAP compliance, even amid apparent federal retreat.

In December 2023, we blogged about lawsuits filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and later the State of Texas against Colony Ridge and related entities. The complaints alleged that Colony Ridge targeted Hispanic borrowers with deceptive Spanish‑language marketing, sold largely undeveloped and flood‑prone land, and engaged in predatory financing by steering borrowers into high‑rate, seller‑financed mortgage loans with extremely high foreclosure rates.

On January 14, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a proposed rule that would repeal its Fair Housing Act (FHA or Act) “discriminatory effects” (disparate impact) regulations and leave the development and application of disparate impact standards entirely to the courts. Comments are due February 13, 2026.

On January 12, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and U.S. Department of Justice formally withdrew their October 2023 joint statement on creditors’ consideration of immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). As we previewed in our December 23, 2025 blog post (available here), the agencies state that the CFPB’s prior statement may have created the misimpression that ECOA or Regulation B impose additional limits on the consideration of immigration or citizenship status beyond the existing regulatory text. The agencies also state that additional guidance on this topic goes beyond Regulation B, so it is unnecessary and appropriate for rescission.

New York has adopted new regulations, 3 NYCRR Part 120, that will extend New York’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) obligations to certain nonbank mortgage lenders operating in the state. Effective July 7, 2026, the rule will require New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS)‑licensed non‑depository mortgage bankers that have originated 200 or more New York State mortgage loans in the prior calendar year to demonstrate that they are providing fair and equitable access to home loans, especially for low‑ and moderate‑income New Yorkers.

On December 22, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) updated its Artificial Intelligence (AI) resource page to consolidate key technical and policy references for federally insured credit unions. The page sits within NCUA’s broader cybersecurity and financial technology resources and is explicitly framed as support for evaluating and performing due diligence on third‑party AI vendors. It links AI oversight back to existing NCUA guidance on third‑party relationships, including 07‑CU‑13 (Evaluating Third Party Relationships) and 01‑CU‑20 (Due Diligence Over Third Party Service Providers).

As reported by Bloomberg here, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) is moving to withdraw a 2023 Biden-era joint statement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that warned lenders against overbroad use of immigration status in credit decisions. The notice, submitted to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), ties together two hallmark priorities of the current Trump administration: a harder line on immigration and a continued effort to scale back fair lending enforcement. While the underlying Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) remains unchanged, the move signals a sharp shift in how the CFPB and DOJ are likely to interpret and enforce its protections for noncitizen borrowers.

On December 17, New Jersey announced its adoption of what its Attorney General is calling the “most comprehensive state-level disparate impact regulations in the country.” Effective December 15, 2025, the Division on Civil Rights’ (DCR) new rules under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) codify guidance on disparate impact discrimination across housing, lending, employment, places of public accommodation, and contracting.

On December 10, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released preliminary findings from its supervisory review of “debanking” activities at the nine largest national banks. The objective of the review was to determine whether the banks debanked or discriminated against any customers or potential customers on the basis of their political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities. The review, which was required to be completed by the OCC and other federal banking agencies by December 5 pursuant to Executive Order 14331 (Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans), covers the period 2020–2025.