Redlining

The little-known unit was launched in the wake of efforts by the CFPB and HUD to cut back on fair-lending activities, but the reach of the 10-month-old office is still unclear.

Revised legislation would exclude credit unions from Community Reinvestment Act requirements, but could make the National Credit Union Administration the de facto enforcer of how CUs meet the needs of underserved markets.

Reps. Lacy Clay and Emanuel Cleaver, both from Missouri, have shown interest in running the panel that could be a focal point in efforts to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The senator’s bill to reform the 40-year-old law and expand housing investments could gain clout as Democrats look to pick up congressional seats and she eyes a presidential run.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule Friday to clarify changes made to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that were mandated by President Trump's regulatory relief law.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s questions for the public to comment on the decades-old law could illuminate a path forward as regulators struggle to agree on an updated policy.

The Supreme Court upheld using “disparate impact” over three years ago. But with HUD weighing a policy change, banks and advocacy groups are still at odds over the court decision.

The Trump administration has argued that the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, issued in 2015, was too prescriptive.

The banking industry lost a key battle in the Supreme Court over the use of “disparate impact,” but legal observers see potential for the tide to turn if Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.

Courts have validated the legal theory behind punishing lenders for unintentional discrimination, but the Trump administration has shown interest in revising the Obama-era policy.

A bill passed by the House would raise the threshold that allows smaller banks and credit unions to avoid expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements imposed by a 2015 rule.

In a new book, Mehrsa Baradaran argues that the same forces of poverty that African-American banks were supposed to alleviate are now holding them back.

Efforts to repeal a Dodd-Frank mandate for lenders to report data on small-business applicants — including race and ethnicity — overlook the benefits of the provision to both communities of color and banks.

While the courts have affirmed cities’ right to file predatory lending suits, they are also now holding them to a much higher standard in proving that banks knowingly steered minority borrowers into high-cost home loans.

The city joins a growing list of municipalities that have filed similar lawsuits, just two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities have standing to sue lenders under the Fair Housing Act.