The Honorable Maxine Waters
Chairwoman
Committee on Financial Services
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Patrick McHenry
Ranking Member
Committee on Financial Services
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairwoman Waters, Ranking Member McHenry and Members of the Committee:
We are writing to urge your support for H.R. 166, the Fair Lending for All Act. The bill would create an Office of Fair Lending Testing within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), add two additional protected classes, and create criminal penalties for violations, three necessary improvements. In addition, the substitute amendment would enhance ECOA’s civil enforcement provisions by providing organizations with standing to bring fair lending cases and ensuring that any entity involved in the credit process is subject to ECOA.
The creation of an Office of Fair Lending Testing at the CFPB is a critical step in preventing the types of fair lending violations that limit economic mobility, slow economic growth and perpetuate the racial wealth gap. Discrimination not only stops consumers from accessing fair and equitable credit products but also hurts the economy. By one account, “providing fair and equitable lending to Black entrepreneurs might have resulted in the creation of an additional $13 trillion in business revenue over the last 20 years.” [1]
Fair lending testing, also known as matched-pair testing, is an enforcement method that uncovers covert discrimination when investigations reveal differences in treatment in the pre-application stage. Testing provides vital evidence of whether applicants were discouraged from applying for credit or offered different products, terms or information. This information is not revealed through required data collection, like the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, because there is no requirement that lenders collect demographic data during the pre-application stage of the loan process. As a result, testing is one of the only ways to uncover discrimination in the pre-application phase of the credit process. The CFPB must have the staff and resources to carry out this work, and the Fair Lending for All Act will provide the Bureau with those necessary resources.
The CFPB, even with the creation of this new office, cannot conduct fair lending investigations and file enforcement actions by testing every discriminatory lender that is currently violating ECOA because there are too many types of lending products and lenders. Since the late 1980s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has partnered with local and national fair housing groups to conduct matched-pair testing in the housing arena because it cannot tackle this problem by itself. “In 2018, private, nonprofit fair housing organizations processed 75.01% of complaints, as compared to 19.19% by FHAP agencies, 5.72% by HUD, and .08% by DOJ.”[2] These local groups play a vital role in rooting out discrimination in the housing finance sector and could be equally valuable in rooting out discrimination in the lending marketplace. Their investigative services must be expanded to all lending products.
We strongly support the provisions of the Fair Lending for All Act as introduced and urge that the substitute amendment be adopted to provide organizations with the standing to bring additional fair lending cases.
Please contact Gerron Levi, Senior Director of Government Affairs, at 202-464-2708 or Brad Blower, General Counsel, at 202-383-7706 with any additional questions.
Sincerely,
| National |
| National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) |
| Center for Responsible Lending |
| Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights |
| NAACP |
| NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund |
| National CAPACD- National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients) |
| National Fair Housing Alliance |
| National NeighborWorks Association |
| Poverty & Race Research Action Council |
| Prosperity Now |
| Public Citizen |
| Public Justice |
| State Groups |
| Alaska |
| AKPIRG |
| Arizona |
| Pima County Community Land Trust |
| California |
| California Coalition for Rural Housing |
| California Low-Income Consumer Coalition (CLICC) |
| California Reinvestment Coalition |
| Fair Housing Council of Orange County |
| People’s Self-Help Housing |
| Public Good Law Center |
| Colorado |
| African American Trade Association |
| Urban Land Conservancy |
| Connecticut |
| Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury, Inc. |
| District of Columbia |
| 727 Mgt. LLC |
| Delaware |
| Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council, Inc. |
| Florida |
| Affordable Homeownership Foundation, Inc. |
| Community Reinvestment Alliance of South Florida |
| HELP COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORP. |
| Metro North Community Development Corporation |
| Georgia |
| Beyond $avvy Corporation |
| Equal Rights Center |
| Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc. |
| Hawaii |
| Hawai‘i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development |
| Self-Help Housing Corporation of Hawaii |
| Illinois |
| Housing Action Illinois |
| Universal Housing Solutions CDC |
| Woodstock Institute |
| Indiana |
| Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Indiana |
| HomesteadCS |
| Northwest Indiana Reinvestment Alliance |
| Prosperity Indiana |
| Suzy Q Service Corporation |
| Maryland |
| African American Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery County |
| CCCSMD |
| Housing Options & Planning Enterprises, Inc. |
| MakingChange, Inc |
| Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition |
| Minnesota |
| Housing Justice Center |
| MICAH- Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing |
| Mississippi |
| MS Communities United for Prosperity (MCUP) |
| Missouri |
| Consumers Council of Missouri |
| Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council |
| R.A.A. – Ready, Aim, Advocate |
| New York |
| Fair Finance Watch |
| North Carolina |
| Henderson and Company |
| Olive Hill Community Economic Development Corporation, Inc |
| Sandhills Community Action Program Inc. |
| Ohio |
| Columbus Empowerment Corporation |
| Home Repair Resource Center23- |
| Homes on the Hill, CDC |
| JOVIS |
| SCMBA |
| Oregon |
| CASA of Oregon |
| Housing Oregon |
| Pennsylvania |
| Ceiba |
| Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations |
| Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group |
| Texas |
| Southern Dallas Progress Community Development Corporation |
| Washington |
| Beacon Development Group C/O Cindy Proctor |
| West Virginia |
| CommunityWorks in West Virginia |
| Wisconsin |
| Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council |
[1] Peterson, D., Mann, C. (2020). Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps: The Economic Cost of Racial Inequality in the U.S. Citi Bank https://ir.citi.com/%2FPRxPvgNWu319AU1ajGf%2BsKbjJjBJSaTOSdw2DF4xynPwFB8a2jV1FaA3Idy7vY59bOtN2lxVQM%3D
[2] Augustine L., Cloud C., Frost-Brown S., Goldberg D., Rice L., Soto J., Williams M. (2019) Defending Against Unprecedented Attacks on Fair Housing: 2019 Fair Housing Trends Report. National Fair Housing Alliance. https://nationalfairhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019-Trends-Report.pdf
