Fair Lending Law Developments

Federal and state law enforcement officials have indicated by their recent actions and press releases that they continue to measure the effectiveness of their fair lending enforcement by the number and size of settlements obtained from individual creditors. By the government's own measure, the government believed it was more effective in fair lending enforcement in 1999 than in recent years. In an apparent attempt to "send a message" to the consumer credit industry, the federal enforcement authorities and one state attorney general brought enforcement actions seeking or obtaining large dollar amounts in redress and/or civil penalties. At the same time, the Federal Reserve Board published proposed revisions to regulation B under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which reflected some of the ongoing debate as to the prevalence of illegal discriminatory practices and the effectiveness of fair lending compliance and enforcement efforts.