WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in talks with the Justice Department over how the agencies will divide and litigate fair lending cases, a CFPB official said Friday.
Both agencies share responsibility for enforcing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and officials have said they plan to work together to pursue fair lending cases under the statute.
Although CFPB must refer cases to the Justice Department when it finds a pattern or practice of discrimination, it also has the authority to file its own cases against banks and other financial institutions in federal court.
Many in the industry have wondered how those cases will proceed, and under what circumstances the Justice Department will defer to the bureau to litigate its own complaints.
"We are currently in discussions with the Department of Justice on how we will work jointly at times, and independently at times, but both rowing in the same direction with regard to the same goal in terms of addressing discrimination," Patrice Ficklin, the bureau's assistant director for its Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, said at a panel discussion in Washington with Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez.
The Justice Department reached its largest fair lending settlement in history last year — a $335 million settlement with Countrywide Financial — and Perez said, "We have many more cases in the queue."
Perez also said the agency is trying to move beyond financial compensation in its settlements to include more commitments that will help affected borrowers repair their credit, and also rebuild infrastructure through investments in the communities affected by discrimination.
