Fair Lending Compliance

Compliance with Fair Lending is not just a good suggestion, it’s the law! In fact, Fair Lending consist of 5 different laws and is an integral part of any company training program. In 2010 under the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress gave the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) authority over large banks, mortgage companies, and other businesses that offer credit and charged them with responsibility for ensuring “fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory access to credit”. As a result, the CFPB published an examination manual that mentions the words ”Fair Lending” 116 times throughout the examination manual.

According to a CFPB source who spoke at the NMLS annual conference, “….the CFPB focus for examinations will be based on risk to consumers…we will look heavy at Fair Lending Review and HMDA data integrity…”

Banks, Lenders and anyone who offers credit to consumers are responsible for effectively training their staff and will be tested throughout any compliance review on whether or not they have an effective strategy and training program for all employees involved with any aspect of retail lending which may include customer service, origination, processing, underwriting and compliance.

This Fair Lending Compliance Course is a great start to protecting your organization from compliance nightmares relating to Fair Lending Violations based on improper training of staff. It covers all 5 laws associated with Fair Lending, and provides multiple cartoon based case studies for learners to remain engaged in the course content. In addition, once complete, learners may access a printable course completion certificate to maintain for their training records. My Mortgage Trainer suggest students take an update to the Fair Lending Course as well as the Anti-Money Laundering course required under FinCEN on an annual basis.

“The CFPB’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, together with the Bureau’s Office of Enforcement, leads the Bureau’s enforcement of fair lending laws, including the ECOA and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).”^* “The Justice Department’s enforcement of fair lending laws is conducted by the Fair Lending Unit of the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section in the Civil Right Division. Since the Fair Lending Unit was established in February 2010, it has filed or resolved 22 lending matters under the Fair Housing Act, the ECOA and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The settlements in these matters provide for a minimum of $500 million in monetary relief for more than 300,000 individual borrowers.”^*

^*As quoted from the CFPB web site.