Newsroom

The CFPB has contacted at least four banks about possible actions targeting their vehicle loans and dealers' interest-rate markups "that may be discriminatory," Bloomberg reported last week.

The report said the banks were told in letters from the CFPB that they had 15 days to explain. The letters reportedly point to possible violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

The report also draws on comments by CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a Feb. 5 webinar hosted by NCUA. "Auto lending is within our jurisdiction," the report quotes him saying. "We are examining institutions around auto lending just as we are looking at them on mortgage credit cards, student loans."

The CFPB has direct enforcement and examination authority over depository institutions with more than $10 billion in assets. These include the four largest credit unions.

In a bulletin last April, the CFPB said "effects test" for discrimination under the ECOA will be applied as the bureau monitors supervised institutions for potential fair lending violations (see story).

• Bloomberg report
• "CFPB affirms use of ECOA effects test," 4/12/12