CFPB releases annual fair lending report to Congress

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its Fair Lending Annual Report to Congress, describing its fair lending activities in enforcement and supervision; guidance and rulemaking; interagency coordination; and outreach and education for calendar year 2022.

In 2022, the CFPB’s fair lending work centered on the consumers and communities most affected by unlawful discrimination. These efforts included working with federal and state partners to address redlining as well as confronting deep-seated discrimination in the home appraisal industry.

The CFPB also released several reports shining a light on factors that may influence fair access to credit, as well as issued several rules and guidance documents reaffirming the importance and applicability of fair lending protections for prospective applicants, applicants for credit, and existing account holders. 

The Fair Lending Annual Report to Congress fulfills the CFPB’s statutory responsibility to, among other things, report annually to Congress on public enforcement actions taken by other agencies with administrative enforcement responsibilities under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), and assessments of the extent to which compliance with ECOA has been achieved.

It also fulfills the statutory requirement that the CFPB, in consultation with HUD, report annually on the utility of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act’s requirement that covered lenders itemize certain mortgage loan data.

As noted in the Future of Fair Lending section at the end of the Report, it is focused especially on the increased use of advanced and emerging technologies in financial services.