National CAPACD Denounces the Administration’s Decision
to Dismantle Fair Lending Enforcement

Mick Mulvaney, the interim head of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), sent out a memo yesterday that announced he would put the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity (OFLEO) under the control of the Director’s office. National CAPACD strongly opposes these actions, which put the office under the political control of this Administration and thus, unable to perform its fair lending mission.

Established under Dodd-Frank, the CFPB protects consumers from unregulated predatory lending and ensures that Americans have fair and transparent access to consumer financial products and services. The CFPB safeguards the financial security of our communities, and the OFLEO plays a critical role in this mission by going after financial companies whenever they discriminate against Americans. As targets of many predatory practices, AAPIs experienced some of the steepest declines in wealth during the housing market collapse and financial crisis. Any form of recovery would have been impossible without the CFPB, which has returned nearly $12 billion directly from financial predators to 29 million consumers since its inception in 2011.

We need a strong and independent CFPB, the only agency charged with the responsibility to protect our communities from deceptive and discriminatory financial practices. Mulvaney’s announcement strips the OFLEO of its independent enforcement authority and effectively dismantles the agency’s ability to take legal action against bad actors. It signals to the financial industry that there will be no consequences to targeting communities of color and low-income people with harmful loans and other products. National CAPACD will continue to stand by our allies to protect the CFPB and its full authority granted under Dodd-Frank; we demand that Mick Mulvaney immediately reverse his decision.