Category Archives: Credit Reporting

Unfairness and Disparate Effects

by Jeff Sovern As we wrote about in May, the CFPB takes the position that it can use its unfairness power when consumer financial service companies discriminate. One issue that has arisen is whether when it does so, the Bureau will use the disparate effects test, sometimes called the disparate impact test, to determine if […]

CFPB Spring Regulatory Agenda is up and arbitration isn’t on it

by Jeff Sovern As the American Banker's Kate Berry reported (behind a paywall but available on Lexis), the CFPB's Spring Regulatory Agenda has been posted to the OMB's web site, rather than, as has been the Bureau's practice, the CFPB web site. Here it is: Prerule stage – Consumer Access to Financial Records, 3170-AA78 Proposed […]

Osofsky & Thomas paper on the relationship between implicit bias and the home mortgage interest deduction

Leigh Osofsky and Kathleen DeLaney Thomas, both of North Carolina, have written Implicit Legislative Bias: The Case of the Mortgage Interest Deduction, 56 UC Davis Law Review (2022). Here is the abstract: The home mortgage interest deduction is over 100 years old. The deduction has been subject to increasing and, at times, withering criticism from […]

Paper on algorithmic price discrimination and consumer protection

Mateusz Grochowski of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law; Yale Law School; Polish Academy of Sciences – Institute of Legal Studies; Agnieszka Jabłonowska of the University of Lodz – Faculty of Law and Administration; European University Institute – Department of Law (LAW); Francesca Lagioia of the European University Institute – Department […]

Some comments on Alan Kaplinsky’s comments on my comments

by Jeff Sovern I am grateful to Alan Kaplinsky for commenting on two of my earlier posts, Whither Arbitration Regulation? and Why the CFPB is right that it can act against discrimination using its unfairness power. One of Alan’s posts is titled Why the CFPB’s expansion of its UDAAP authority to target discrimination requires rulemaking. In the other […]

Why the CFPB is right that it can act against discrimination using its unfairness power

by Jeff Sovern Recently the CFPB announced that in conducting supervisory operations, it takes the position that discrimination is unfair and so violates the Consumer Financial Protection Act. You might think this is pretty straightforward: most of us would think odious discrimination is unfair. Discrimination easily qualifies as unfair under the statutory requirements of unfairness, […]

Study finds borrower race does not affect appraiser valuation

Brent W. Ambrose of Pennsylvania State, James Conklin of Georgia, N. Edward Coulson of California, Irvine – Paul Merage School of Business, Moussa Diop of USC, and Luis A. Lopez of the University of Illinois at Chicago have written Does Appraiser and Borrower Race Affect Valuation? Here’s the abstract: Following concerns about undervaluation of minority-owned […]

Meirav Furth’s important article: Retail Race Discrimination

Meirav Furth of UCLA and Tel-Aviv University has written Retail Race Discrimination. Here's the abstract: This Article investigates everyday race discrimination while shopping in clothing stores of different price ranges. It reports on an original field experiment which examines the combined effects of race and gender on consumers’ shopping experiences and outcomes. Nineteen testers—Black and white […]

Remolina paper on the role of financial regulators in the governance of algorithmic credit scoring

Nydia Remolina of Singapore Management University – Centre for AI & Data Governance has written The Role of Financial Regulators in the Governance of Algorithmic Credit Scoring. Here’s the abstract: The use of algorithmic credit scoring presents opportunities and challenges for lenders, regulators, and consumers. This paper provides an analysis of the perils of the […]

Consumer Law Scholars Make Wide-Ranging Proposals to CFPB

The effort was led by Berkeley's Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice and resulted in production of a series of short memoranda available here. Topics covered include discrimination, arbitration, income share agreements, BNPL, substitution effects of regulation, disclosures, overdraft protections, and more.