Barron’s, November 2, Financial Watchdog Under Fire Amid Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed many U.S. consumers to the brink of financial disaster. Also troubling, consumer advocates say, is CFPB’s suspension early in the pandemic of mortgage lenders’ required reporting of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, which helps shine light on potentially discriminatory lending patterns, and a CFPB rule issued this spring exempting many financial institutions from reporting such data. Those steps can turn a blind eye on the communities that may be disproportionately harmed—physically and financially—by the pandemic, researchers say. A recent study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found a higher prevalence of Covid risk factors in neighborhoods historically subject to “redlining,” a practice of denying mortgages and other services to people in certain areas, largely based on race.
