Groups Sue CFPB to Block Dismantling of Fair and Affordable Credit Protections
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), Rise Economy, and fair lending compliance firms BLDS, LLC and SolasAI filed suit in federal court to stop a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that reverses 50 years of fair lending protections and opens the door to discrimination against women, Black, Latino, Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Native people, the elderly, and other underserved communities that have long been denied a fair chance to receive safe and affordable credit.
The plaintiffs are represented by Relman Colfax PLLC, Public Citizen Litigation Group, and Democracy Forward.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, names the CFPB and Acting Director Russell Vought as defendants. The suit challenges a final rule the CFPB issued on April 22, 2026, that unwinds five decades of fair and affordable credit protections under the landmark Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).
For nearly 50 years, ECOA has barred practices that unnecessarily exclude people from credit opportunities. ECOA also allows governments, financial services firms, and non-profit entities to create Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs). SPCPs have responsibly opened credit access to underserved communities that generations of discrimination locked out from credit opportunities. The CFPB’s rule would effectively outlaw such for-profit organization programs, eliminating proven means to extend affordable credit.
“The CFPB is upending decades of consistent regulatory implementation of ECOA by dismantling some of the statute’s fundamental protections,” said Allison Zieve, director of Public Citizen Litigation Group. “The court should reject the CFPB’s arbitrary and unsupported rule, which is inconsistent with the plain text of ECOA.”
“This is the deliberate dismantling of 50-years of legal jurisprudence, regulatory guidance, and bipartisan consensus that lending discrimination has no place in America,” said Lisa Rice, National Fair Housing Alliance President and CEO. “This reversal by the CFPB is a continuation of this Administration’s efforts to gut fair housing and lending protections. Eviscerating these guardrails will ultimately result in less credit access for many people, make our markets less sound, and cause our economy to be less productive.”
“The CFPB has ignored public comments, common sense, and decades of precedent in its misguided attempt to turn anti-discrimination law on its head,” said Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, CEO of Rise Economy. “The CFPB was created to protect consumers and small businesses from financial abuse and discrimination, and this final Reg B rule would do real harm, setting us back in our collective efforts to ensure that all families and small businesses have a fair chance to achieve the American Dream.”
“This rule undermines one of the nation’s core civil rights protections in lending and will lead to more discrimination in access to credit,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “At a time when communities across the country continue to face barriers to homeownership, small business lending, and economic opportunity, the CFPB should be strengthening protections against discrimination, not dismantling them. At Democracy Forward, we are honored to represent a coalition of fair housing and lender advocates in holding the CFPB accountable for abandoning its mission to protect consumers.”
These rollbacks will have harmful effects on protections and programs that have worked to prevent discrimination and expand access to credit, threatening the opportunity for all people to achieve the American dream.
The lawsuit asks the court to vacate the rule as arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law, and in excess of statutory authority, and because it was issued without following required procedures. The complaint also challenges CFPB Acting Director Vought’s lawful authority to serve as acting director.
The complaint is available here.