News Topic: Race discrimination

The uproar over the incendiary writings of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official have led to calls for his removal, but the agency’s interim chief says he won’t “let any outside group dictate who works here.” ... Read full article

Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney to reveal the vetting process that led to the hiring of a political appointee whose past incendiary writings have caused an uproar at the agency. ... Read full article

The head of the National Treasury Employees Union said the appointment of Eric Blankenstein to a senior role “reflects poorly on CFPB management.” ... Read full article

Eric Blankenstein, a political appointee overseeing fair-lending policy at the agency, said in an email to staff that his blog posts from 14 years ago that used a racial epithet “reflected poor judgment.” ... Read full article

A growing chorus of CFPB employees are arguing that Eric Blankenstein, policy director of supervision, enforcement and fair lending at the CFPB, cannot be trusted to do his job fairly given his past blog posts. ... Read full article

The head of the agency’s fair-lending office cast doubt on a proposed reorganization of her office and raised concerns about blog posts written years ago by the political appointee overseeing the project. ... Read full article

JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement with financial advisers who say they were treated poorly because they're black. ... Read full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule Friday to clarify changes made to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that were mandated by President Trump's regulatory relief law. ... Read full article

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., released a survey of lending practices that he said point to practices such as forced arbitration clauses and extracting a customer’s credit score to determine creditworthiness. ... Read full article

The Trump administration has argued that the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, issued in 2015, was too prescriptive. ... Read full article

Bank of America has agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar sum to settle a defamation claim brought by former executive Omeed Malik, who was fired by the bank earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. ... Read full article

The Democratic congresswoman said the department under Secretary Ben Carson has turned "its back on its mission." ... Read full article

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., the CBC's chair, requested with a meeting with the comptroller of the currency to "enlighten" him about discrimination in banking. ... Read full article

The CFPB is looking to rescind Obama-era policy that allowed it to punish banks and financial firms for unintentional discrimination. ... Read full article

Lawmakers should not toss out an agency rule aimed at curbing auto dealer markups that adversely impact borrowers of color. ... Read full article

Senate Democrats accused Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and his agency of failing to enforce fair housing laws. ... Read full article

Two civil rights groups in Texas allege that Capital One's TV ads featuring black celebrities encourage minority customers to deposit money and use debit cards, while its branch closings in their neighborhoods cut them off from loans and other ... Read full article

Alternative data can be beneficial for individuals locked out of the financial system’s more conventional data types, but such data is open to manipulation or biased interpretation. ... Read full article