On January 12, 2026, the CFPB and DOJ published a Federal Register Notice withdrawing Biden-era guidance concerning the consideration of immigration status when making credit decisions under ECOA. ECOA does not expressly prohibit consideration of immigration status. Under Regulation B, creditors may consider an applicant’s immigration status or status as…
This year has seen a lot of activity in the cryptocurrency regulatory space, with several states amending existing statutes regulating money transmitters or instituting new regulatory mechanisms to address digital assets. For example, on June 27 Pennsylvania became the 27th state to regulate virtual currency and a few months later,…
On January 16, 2025, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had reached a settlement with a credit card provider resolving allegations that the provider violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) through allegedly deceptive marketing of its credit card and wire transfer products, and by allegedly…
On January 16, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had entered into a settlement agreement with a bank holding company and global financial services corporation to resolve allegations that the Company violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) by “deceptively marketing credit card and wire…
On October 15, 2024 the CFPB and DOJ announced they had jointly filed a complaint and consent order against a mortgage company over allegations of racial discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama. The joint complaint alleged that the company engaged in unlawful discrimination by “redlining majority-Black and high-Black areas in Birmingham” and engaging in acts that would discourage applicants…
Last month, the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a joint statement that reminded financial institutions that all credit applicants are protected from discrimination on the basis of their national origin, race and other characteristics covered by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), regardless of…
On May 31, 2023, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), announced that it had entered into a settlement with a Philadelphia based bank and trust company over allegations that the bank had engaged in unlawful redlining in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. In the Complaint, filed contemporaneously with the consent order in U.S. District Court for the…
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached a settlement with a Memphis-based bank to resolve alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601–3619, and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1691–1691f, and its implementing Regulation B, 12 C.F.R. §…
On September 13, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Southern District of Texas announced that it had reached a settlement with a bank that served as a lender under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to resolve allegations that the lender violated the False Claims Act (FCA) in issuing processing a PPP…
On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and proposed consent order in a federal district court alleging that a mortgage company intentionally discriminated against families living in majority-minority neighborhoods around Philadelphia in violation of the Fair Housing Act…
On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they reached a settlement with a nonbank residential mortgage lender to resolve allegations of race-based lending discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619; the Equal Credit Opportunity Act…
On June 21, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and settlement agreement in federal court alleging that a social media company is in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619, for employing tools that allow advertisers of housing-related services to exclude certain…
On March 21, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it obtained a permanent injunction against a credit repair company and its CEO, barring the company from making representations that it can improve consumers’ credit scores. The injunction was issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in relation…
On March 11, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Virginia filed a consent order and settlement with a Virginia-based credit union for alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleged that the defendant unlawfully charged…
On January 14, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached an agreement with a student loan servicer that had serviced loans under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program. The agreement resolves allegations that the loan servicer submitted false claims to the Department of Education (DOE) in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA)….
On September 30, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached a settlement with an auto lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). Following an investigation which began in 2019, the DOJ filed a complaint that same day in the United States District Court for the Northern…
On September 29, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached a settlement with a California-based auto lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). In a simultaneously-filed complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, the DOJ…
On September 20, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached a settlement with the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA), resolving allegations that the state agency unlawfully obtained default judgments against two military servicemembers for student loan debt in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). In a…
On August 30, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that, together with Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), it reached a settlement with a bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in lender discrimination in the Houston, Texas area. In 2017, the OCC initiated a fair lending examination…
On October 22, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had reached a settlement with a San Diego-based national mortgage lender, resolving allegations that the company had originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) without following program…