In Key Change, CFPB Consolidates Fair Lending Oversight in Supervision and Enforcement Unit

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will remove day-to-day oversight and enforcement authority from its Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, according to reports today. Those responsibilities will now be carried out by the CFPB’s supervision, enforcement and fair lending division. The decision came after a memo by Acting Director Mick Mulvaney last week pledged that the bureau will no longer “push the envelope” in the name of enforcing consumer protection laws.

ABA has previously objected to the CFPB’s reliance on statistics and disparate impact theories to pursue redlining and discrimination allegations that too often were inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s Texas v. Inclusive Communities decision. The association continues to advocate for reforms to the CFPB that would promote greater transparency and accountability and include appropriate checks and balances on the bureau’s authority. For more information, contact ABA’s Rob Rowe.