Ahead of Hearing, Senate Democrats Press Banking Regulators on Civil Rights Safeguards for American Borrowers

Ahead of Hearing, Senate Democrats Press Banking Regulators on Civil Rights Safeguards for American Borrowers

"Removing disparate impact ties examiners' hands and makes it much harder to uncover discrimination by banks, credit unions, mortgage originators, and other lenders."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - Today, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and a group of Senate Democrats sent letters to the Jonathan Gould, Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Travis Hill, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Kyle S. Hauptman, Chairman of the Board of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). The letters follow the regulators' decisions to remove disparate impact references from their bank supervisory activities, leaving the door open for Americans to be discriminated against in lending without recourse.

Signers of the letter include: U.S. Senators Angela D. Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tina Smith (D-MN), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Jack Reed (D-RI), Cory A. Booker (D-NJ).

"Removing disparate impact liability from these documents will significantly weaken longstanding civil rights safeguards and make it easier for financial institutions to discriminate against borrowers on the basis of protected characteristics such as race and gender. Your agencies must immediately reinstate the use of disparate impact analysis to ensure examiners can use the full set of tools at their disposal to uncover and act on instances of discrimination in financial services." wrote the Senators.

"In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking 'to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.' Following this executive order, your agencies removed all references to disparate impact in your examination manuals," wrote the Senators. "Removing disparate impact ties examiners' hands and makes it much harder to uncover discrimination by banks, credit unions, mortgage originators, and other lenders. Discrimination often goes undetected unless independent entities conduct an analysis that reveals discrimination after the consumer received a loan."

The Senators request that the agencies provide a briefing on efforts to do so by March 11, 2026.

###

• Print
• Email
• Tweet