Anti-Discrimination Regulatory Framework
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has opened a sweeping inquiry into how credit discrimination occurs and could be averted, seeking comments and suggestions without indicating any possible policy responses. However, the issues on which it seeks comment are guideposts to the agency’s near-term regulatory priorities, spelling out what could prove an ambitious agenda redefining consumer-finance regulation to speed artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) adoption and increase the scope of federal preemption. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed what many see as a rollback in its disparate-impact standards to enhance AI/ML use; any action by the CFPB to do so following comments on this RFI would be at least as controversial as it would apply across the spectrum of consumer-financial products, not just to HUD-backed mortgages.
