On December 29, 2017, the Lower East Side People’s Credit Union (“People’s”) filed a reply brief in support of its preliminary injunction motion in which it seeks to block the appointment of Mick Mulvaney as the Acting CFPB Director. The arguments were largely the same as those advanced in its motion.
The one exception is that People’s spent considerable time arguing that Mulvaney’s decision to pause HMDA-related enforcement actions was causing People’s concrete harm. Banks know that regulators use HMDA data to evaluate Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) compliance. People’s claims that, to satisfy their CRA obligations, Banks often make deposits at People’s that pay no or low interest. People’s uses those deposits to make loans in the community. People’s argued that Mulvaney’s policy with respect to HMDA enforcement will give banks an incentive to falsify their HMDA data to appear compliant with the CRA without actually making the deposits. This, People’s argues, will have an adverse interest on its bottom line. To call the argument “strained” is beyond generous.