AFREF joined partner organizations to comment on the FHA’s 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program, a program that provides critical financing for low- and moderate-income people seeking to purchase a home in need of repairs. The comment letter details a number of changes that would increase participation in the program.
This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a notice of appeal in its redlining lawsuit against Townstone Financial and its owner Barry Sturner as part of an ongoing case. In 2020, the CFPB accused Sturner and Townstone, a nonbank mortgage lender, of violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by discouraging prospective Black applicants from applying for their mortgages. Unfortunately, in February 2023, Judge Franklin Valerrama of the U.S.
Unbeknownst to most people with loved ones in nursing homes, it’s often nearly impossible to determine if the facility you’ve entrusted your family member to is owned by a private equity firm – an ownership structure that has been shown to result in worse health outcomes for patients, at greater cost. Within the past two decades, the once-obscure private equity industry has ballooned in size from $1 trillion in 2008 to nearly $4.5 trillion in 2021.
AFREF submitted a comment letter in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s request for information for the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program (ECJ Program), which provides funding for financial and technical assistance to carry out environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities. The letter highlights the need for the ECJ Program to minimize barriers for the most climate-vulnerable applicants, prioritize the needs and perspectives of all underrepresented or historically marginalized community members, and prioritize projects that combat the harmful effects of bluelining by financial service providers.
Washington, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final rule implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act will allow better enforcement of fair lending laws and help increase access to sustainable credit for small businesses and women- and minority-owned small businesses in particular.
Washington, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a policy statement on how it defines prohibited abusive conduct against consumers.
Washington, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed rulemaking to require that regulated nonbank entities annually register with the CFPB regarding their use of specific terms and conditions in form contracts for consumer financial products and services, will reinforce the agency’s ongoing efforts to bring transparency and accountability on how financial industries operate, according to Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and consumer coalition advocates.
AFREF led 14 organizations in the housing, consumer protection, climate, civil rights, and community investment spaces, in a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency regarding the Federal Home Loan Bank system, arguing for expanded contributions to affordable housing to justify the public investment in the system, and for the system to undertake a number of initiatives to support members in reducing their climate risk and climate vulnerability.
AFREF joined a comment to the CFPB supporting the Bureau’s proposal to require nonbank covered persons that are subject to certain agency and court orders to register those orders with the CFPB. The registry will help the CFPB, law enforcement community, and the public limit the harms from repeat offenders.
Washington, D.C. – The banking regulation plan outlined by the White House today is an absolutely necessary response to the financial instability triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10. But only continuing action by the president, the regulators, and Congress can achieve the changes necessary for a more equitable and stable financial system.