Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

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Illinois Governor Pritzker signed the new Civil Rights Safeguard Act (Senate Bill 3777) on July 31, 2026 to codify disparate impact as an available theory of discrimination, including in providing financial services.

The state’s Human Rights Act currently provides that it is a civil rights violation for a financial institution, on the grounds of “unlawful discrimination,” to deny services to a person, or to provide a person with different services, including denying or varying the terms of a loan, or using lending standards that have no economic basis. (The Human Rights Act also prohibits discrimination in other realms, including employment, real estate transactions, and public accommodations.) A “financial institution” for this purpose includes a bank, credit union, insurance company, mortgage banking company, or savings and loan association that operates or has a place of business in the state.

The new Civil Rights Safeguard Act amends the Human Rights Act, including by revising the state’s definition of “unlawful discrimination.” The new definition clarifies that “unlawful discrimination” includes discrimination against a person, “whether by purpose or effect,” because of his or her actual or perceived protected status. Accordingly, for example, even if a financial institution has no intention to discriminate in its provision of loans or other services, if its lending standards or other activities have the effect of treating persons differently on a protected basis, it appears those standards or activities could implicate fair lending scrutiny in Illinois.

Continue Reading Illinois Prohibits Disparate Impact Discrimination

The California Business and Consumer Services Agency (“BCSA”) officially began operations on July 1, 2026, following a reorganization under California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Reorganization Plan GRP-1 that split the former Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency into two agencies, the California Housing and Homelessness Agency and the BCSA. Rohit Chopra, former Director of the Consumer…

On May 12, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that Rohit Chopra, former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, will serve as Secretary of California’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency (“BCSA”). The BCSA is scheduled to launch on July 1, 2026.

The new agency…

On March 24, 2026, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) announced that it is launching an investigation under the federal Fair Housing Act into a state-sponsored special purpose credit program (described below) that reportedly uses race as an eligibility factor.

The Washington Homeownership Resource Center runs the Covenant Homeownership Program (the “Program”), which the state legislature created in 2023 to “address the history of housing discrimination due to racially restrictive real estate covenants in Washington state.” The Washington legislation provides that generations of systemic “redlining, racially restrictive covenants, mortgage subsidies and incentives” created barriers to mortgage credit and homeownership for black, indigenous, and people of color and other historically marginalized communities in Washington. To remedy those circumstances, the legislature created a down payment and closing cost assistance program for eligible first-time homebuyers, repayable upon the sale or refinancing of the home, and forgivable after a period of time for certain eligible households.

According to the Program’s website, persons eligible for the Program are those who lived in the state before 1968 (or have a parent or grandparent who did), are first-time homebuyers who meet the income guidelines (up to 120% Area Median Income), and are a member of a racial group identified through the organization’s mandated study.

HUD asserts that the Program may violate the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing and mortgage financing discrimination based on race, among other factors. HUD Secretary Turner stated that the agency will vigorously enforce the Act and seek to eliminate illegal racial preferences.

Continue Reading HUD Launches Fair Housing Investigation into Special Purpose Credit Program

On December 19, 2025, New York Governor Hochul signed the Fostering Affordability and Integrity Through Reasonable (“FAIR”) Business Practices Act. The FAIR Business Practices Act adds prohibitions against “unfair” and “abusive” acts or practices to the state attorney general’s arsenal, which otherwise expressly addressed only such acts or practices that are “deceptive.”

The state Attorney…

On October 1, 2025, the interagency final rule implementing quality control standards for automated valuation models (“AVMs”) became effective. The rule requires the adoption and maintenance of policies, practices, procedures, and control systems for the use of AVMs by mortgage originators in making credit decisions, and by secondary market issuers that use AVMs…

On June 24, 2025, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) published a Request for Information (“RFI”) to better understand how increasing consumer use of Buy Now Pay Later (“BNPL”) products impacts housing affordability and stability in connection with the residential loan programs insured by the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”). BNPL products, which allow consumers to purchase goods and services and repay over time (typically, though not always, through four or fewer deferred installments payable over six to eight weeks with no periodic interest or other finance charges), have continued to gain popularity over the past decade. To date, however, HUD has not incorporated consideration of BNPL products into underwriting guidelines for FHA-insured mortgage loans. With the RFI, HUD is seeking more information on whether it should develop policies to address potential ability-to-repay risks from these relatively new products.

Background on BNPL

While retail financing has a long history in the U.S., the concept of BNPL as a distinct class of product largely stems from the introduction of a “pay-in-4” product into the U.S. around 2018. This core element of the BNPL market involves the origination of unsecured, interest-free short-term installment loans to pay for relatively small-dollar retail purchases. Payments are usually due in four or fewer equal installments, with the first payment often due as a down payment at the time of sale. Subsequent payments are typically due every two weeks. Consumers enter into BNPL loans frequently through apps or purchase-and-origination flows managed by fintech BNPL providers. BNPL lenders may approve or deny a loan based on their own individual underwriting criteria, which may include reliance on a consumer report (often pulled as a soft pull to prequalify a consumer for a potential range of terms) and/or the consumer’s repayment history with the BNPL lender. BNPL lenders generally do not report repayment history or default to the consumer reporting agencies, although: (i) some lenders offer consumers the option to report positive repayment histories, and (ii) credit bureaus are planning to incorporate BNPL payments into credit scores and craft new categories to better match typical BNPL structures (as compared to reporting formats currently relevant for installment loans with monthly payments or traditional credit cards), each of which may increase adoption of BNPL credit reporting over time.

Continue Reading HUD Requests Information on Buy Now Pay Later

On June 12, 2025, Judge Valderrama of the federal district court for the Northern District of Illinois denied the joint motion to vacate the stipulated final judgment reached between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and Townstone Financial, Inc., in an action alleging violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”).

As explained in Mayer…

Consistent with expectations for lighter regulation under the Trump administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) indicated in a March 26, 2025 court filing that it intends to revoke an Interpretative Rule it issued in May 2024 that would regulate certain Buy Now, Pay Later (“BNPL”) products as credit cards for the purposes of the federal Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”).

As discussed in an earlier Mayer Brown blog post, the Bureau previously issued an Interpretative Rule clarifying that lenders who issue “digital user accounts” that allow consumers to access credit for retail purchases are considered “card issuers” who must comply with additional disclosure and substantive requirements under TILA and its implementing regulation, Regulation Z. Prior to the issuance of the CFPB’s Interpretive Rule, providers of what has become the “core” BNPL product in the US—a closed-end loan that does not bear a finance charge and is repayable in not more than four installments—generally took the position that their activities did not trigger Regulation Z compliance obligations. The Interpretive Rule, however, explained that certain Regulation Z requirements nevertheless apply where a credit card is involved, and characterized “digital user accounts” as credit cards.  The Interpretive Rule followed over three years of market research on the BNPL industry during which the CFPB determined that consumers often used BNPL as a substitute for conventional credit cards, and represented an attempt to close what it characterized as a regulatory loophole, notwithstanding various ways in which typical BNPL accounts differ materially from credit cards in the way in which consumers access credit.

Continue Reading CFPB Indicates That It Will Rescind Buy Now, Pay Later Interpretative Rule

In an unprecedented move, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) Acting Director is seeking to vacate the Bureau’s settlement with Townstone Financial (“Townstone” or the “Company”), which was entered by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on November 7, 2024. In a press release, Acting Director Vought stated that the CFPB “abused its power, used radical ‘equity’ arguments to tag Townstone as a racist with zero evidence . . . to further the goal of DEI in lending via their regulation by enforcement tactics.”

Continue Reading CFPB Seeks to Vacate Townstone Redlining Settlement