On August 19, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a proposed rule for the purpose of aligning HUD’s 2013 Disparate Impact Rule with the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities. HUD sought comments from relevant stakeholders and the public on the proposed rule. Mayer Brown partners Tori Shinohara and Melanie Brody helped prepare a comment letter on behalf of the American Financial…

The saga over whether to include a controversial “preferred language” question on the new redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) continues. Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) changed course yet again and decided to remove the language preference question from the redesigned URLA. Instead, the question will be moved to a separate, optional consumer information form that will not be part of the URLA. The preferred language question would ask all mortgage applicants…

Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s inception in 2011, the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity (Office of Fair Lending) has been a powerful force within the agency. This week, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney announced that the Office of Fair Lending will be transferred from where it currently resides – in the Division of Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending (SEFL) – to the Office of the Director, where it will become part of the Office…

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) rejected the pleas of many in the mortgage industry by adding a question about the applicant’s language preference to the future Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) (Form 1003/65). While the FHFA is seeking to promote access to credit for consumers with limited English skills, lenders remained concerned that the revisions will raise the risk of confusing or misleading those consumers. Read more about the FHFA’s upcoming changes…

When, if at all, should a mortgage lender or servicer be required to conduct business in a language other than English when the consumer has expressed a preference that language? The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking input on actions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could take to promote access to mortgage credit for qualified borrowers with limited English proficiency, and to ensure those borrowers have access to information to understand the mortgage process.…

On June 22, 2017, the CFPB’s Student Loan Ombudsman put out its annual report on student loans, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. The report analyzes complaints submitted by consumers about student loan servicers between March 2016 and February 2017. Many of the complaints relate to practices, such as payment processing, customer service and borrower communication, and income-based repayment plan enrollment, that the CFPB has frequently scrutinized in the past through supervision and enforcement activities. However,…