2/1/2025 in Press Releases

NFHA Commends Director Chopra’s Leadership and Stresses Importance of the CFPB’s Mission for its New Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2025

NFHA Commends Director Chopra’s Leadership and Stresses

Importance of the CFPB’s Mission for its New Director

Washington, D.C. – Today, Lisa Rice, President, and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™), released the following statement regarding the abrupt firing of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra and his service to the nation:

“NFHA applauds Director Chopra’s leadership of the CFPB for effectively carrying out his obligation to protect consumers against fraud, abuse, and discrimination. He prioritized strong enforcement actions against financial institutions engaging in harmful practices, launched a major initiative to crack down on junk fees, and took steps to increase oversight of Big Tech companies’ involvement in financial services. The CFPB’s next director must be equally committed to the agency’s consumer protection and fair lending mission, particularly now as the nation grapples with both a fair and affordable housing crisis and the growing involvement of AI in the housing and financial services sectors.

The CFPB’s legitimacy is incontrovertible. NFHA played an integral role in and pushed for the creation of the CFPB and its Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity after the devastation of the 2008 housing and financial crash led to the Great Recession. The financial crisis tanked the global economy and resulted in consumers losing trillions in wealth. Since its founding, the CFPB has taken significant actions to protect everyday people and America’s most vulnerable consumers, including, people of color, immigrants, students, veterans, and low-wealth families. The agency has returned over $21 billion to consumers who were victimized by abuse and discrimination.

Its enforcement actions have been effective at holding financial institutions accountable and making lending fairer, more transparent, and accessible. The CFPB’s funding structure has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and is similar to other banking regulators. Voters want leaders focused on solutions that help them realize the American Dream, and NFHA looks forward to working with the next CFPB Director to advance its vitally important mission.”

CFPB Achievements Under Director Chopra’s Leadership

Under Director Chopra’s leadership, the CFPB prioritized protecting people from discriminatory lending practices and other financial injuries. The CFPB made many notable achievements including:

  • Joining the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in issuing an interagency statement reminding creditors of the ability under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B to establish special purpose credit programs (SPCPs) to meet the credit needs of specified classes of persons to expand equality in lending.
  • Supporting actions that led to more inclusive underwriting, including the consideration of positive rental payment history and cash-flow data enabling hundreds of thousands of people to fairly secure a mortgage and start their journey on the American Dream of homeownership.
  • Partnering with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to release a joint statement outlining a commitment to applying their respective laws and regulations to automated systems marketed as “artificial intelligence” (AI). As AI systems become an everyday reality, the CFPB, under Director Chopra’s leadership, and these agencies reaffirmed their commitment to protect civil rights, ensure fair competition, safeguard consumers, and promote equal opportunities.
  • Achieving a significant regulatory milestone by terminating Upstart’s “no-action letter” that granted the fintech company special regulatory treatment for its algorithm-based underwriting model. This rescission was a clear signal that the CFPB would no longer allow companies to sidestep the rigorous review required for the deployment of underwriting systems. This decisive move by the CFPB also signaled to both the market and other regulators that the agency was willing to assert its authority over emerging technologies.
  • Stating unequivocally that AI-driven decisions must comply with the nation’s existing fair housing and lending laws during the National Fair Housing Alliance’s Inaugural Responsible AI Symposium in January 2024. Technology is the new civil and human rights frontier and technology bias (including in artificial intelligence, credit reporting, and automated valuation models) undermines fairness.
  • Partnering with the DOJ in initiating and resolving cases under its Combating Redlining Initiative, which secured over $150 million in redlining settlements with banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. The settlements resulted in grants of $135 million to borrowers in redlined communities and generated over $1 billion in home loans in underserved neighborhoods of color.
  • Issuing a final rule banning medical debt from consumer credit reports to remove an estimated $49 billion in medical bills from the credit reports of about 15 million Americans. Medical debt devastates the budgets of millions of families, especially those living in the South, making it difficult for people living in the region to secure quality credit opportunities to purchase a home, start a business, or finance a car to get to work. It also disproportionately impacts Black and Latino consumers, who are more likely to be uninsured and disproportionately lack the wealth to immediately address surprise medical expenses because they were long denied fair housing and lending opportunities. These medical debts can then result in collections reported on their credit reports, although the medical debts are not an accurate reflection of the consumer’s ability or willingness to repay debts.

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The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is the country’s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. Through its homeownership, credit access, tech equity, education, member services, public policy, community development, and enforcement initiatives, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.

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