Kate Berry

The consumer bureau is asking for comment on whether the rule implementing the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act is meeting its stated goals of detecting discrimination in mortgage lending.

The bureau’s new director named former Obama administration officials Lorelei Salas and Eric Halperin, respectively, as the heads of supervision policy and enforcement.

Amazon, Google and other technology giants entering financial services should be subject to the same supervision banks are, Rohit Chopra said in his first congressional testimony as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also said he wants to focus enforcement on large firms that harm many people rather than chasing small companies.

The recent order by Director Rohit Chopra — issued just days after he was sworn in — demanding that Amazon, Facebook and others hand over information about their payments products is being interpreted as a sign that the consumer bureau wants to take a more active role in regulating the tech giants.

Trustmark Bank agreed to pay $9 million to resolve allegations that it discriminated against Black and Hispanic residents in Memphis, Tennessee. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Department of Justice and other agencies will continue their crackdown.

Eric Halperin, a longtime consumer advocate, is the first big hire by the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The industry is prioritizing Black and Hispanic consumers in the interest of social equity and to tap new markets amid declining refinance volume and rising rates.

After permitting remote appraisals on an interim basis during the pandemic, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will accept them outright starting in early 2022, the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

As the expiration of a national eviction moratorium puts economic pressure on low-income households, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is said to be considering investigating credit bureaus, debt collectors and large landlords accused of harming renters. But some argue the agency would be overreaching.

Zixta Q. Martinez has been with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since its inception a decade ago and most recently was a senior advisor in the supervision, enforcement and fair-lending division.

Silvio Tavares, the former chief executive of the Digital Commerce Alliance, will lead the credit-bureau analytics firm.

Banks, credit card issuers and debt collectors all supported the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s revised regulations. But they face a steep learning curve in complying with the rules, which take effect Nov. 30.

Housing will still be a priority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but newly confirmed Director Rohit Chopra is also expected to investigate discrimination in the Paycheck Protection Program and bias in AI-powered lending algorithms.

Rohit Chopra, a liberal consumer watchdog, was approved as the agency’s director nine months after the Biden administration first announced him as the nominee.

Acting Director Sandra Thompson said the Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering changes to the risk-based fees that critics say have disproportionately hurt minority borrowers of low down-payment loans.

At a House Financial Services Committee hearing, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioned the widespread practice of screen scraping and agreed that consumers should have a more direct say over how their financial data is handled.

A long to-do list — from developing mortgage servicing requirements to revisiting payday lending rules — awaits Rohit Chopra, the administration’s choice to lead the consumer bureau. But it's still anyone's guess when the Senate will confirm him.

Infrastructure will command most of lawmakers’ attention, but expect banks to keep pushing for bills that would ease the transition away from a key benchmark rate and help them serve legal cannabis businesses.

Financial institutions will have until early October to weigh in about new risk-based capital requirements for nonbanks.

The agency developed measures taking effect Aug. 31 that, among other things, will allow lenders to prioritize foreclosures of the most impaired loans and then focus on modifying salvageable ones.