Credit Discrimination

Unfair credit discrimination still permeates the American marketplace. Every day, countless individuals and families are denied access to mainstream credit because they are not white or because they are women, seniors, or disabled. In addition to perpetuating historical discrimination against minority groups, credit discrimination destroys the financial well-being of its victims. Without access to reasonably priced credit, it becomes measurably more difficult to achieve homeownership and build assets, pay for college education or vocational training, or even buy a reliable car for transportation to work.

Policy Analysis

Policy Briefs, Reports and Press Releases

• Policy Brief urging the CFPB to Update Regulation B and Credit Discrimination, April 2012
• Why Responsible Mortgage Lending Is a Fair Housing Issue, Feb. 2012

Comments

• Comments to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development re: Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's Discriminatory Effects Standard, January 17, 2012
• Comments regarding Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs—Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, March 25, 2011
• Comments regarding Equal Credit Opportunity Act, 1999

Testimony

• Testimony  Before House Financial Services Committee on the Need for Race, Age and Sex Data on Non-Mortgage Lending, July 2008

Letters

• Group letter to the CFPB re: FHA violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act's Anti-Retaliation Provisions, March 30, 2012
• Letter to the Financial Services Committee requesting oversight hearings regarding the state of fair housing and lending enforcement in America, February 2007
• Letter to the Senate Banking Committee requesting oversight hearings regarding the state of fair housing and lending enforcement in America, February 2007

Litigation

• Subprime Mortgage Discrimination: National class action cases brought under the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act against certain subprime mortgage lenders
• Autofinance Discrimination: National class action cases brought under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act against certain auto finance companies and banks.
• Magner v. Gallaher, U.S. Supreme Court No.1032
  NCLC has joined an amicus brief prepared by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law with other national civil rights organizations arguing that the Fair Housing Act properly is interpreted to authorize disparate impact claims and that the Eight Circuit applied the correct burden shifting approach to litigating disparate impact claims consistent with the way Title VII cases are litigated and HUD's proposed regulation governing this subject. Brief. NCLC also consulted with the ACLU (which cites NCLC's Credit Discrimination manual and references NCLC's sub-prime mortgage discrimination disparate impact cases brought under the Fair Housing Act) and the Department of Justice with regards to the preparation of the amicus briefs they separately prepared and filed with the Supreme Court in the appeal. Briefs.