Fair Lending Workshop

 

Fair lending continues to be a major concern for the financial services industry.  Nationwide HMDA data continues to show significant disparities in the areas of both loan approval and loan pricing by race and ethnicity.  As foreclosure rates increase, examiners will surely look to see if a correlation exists between defaults and race, ethnicity and/or gender.  How do financial institutions prepare for these types of regulatory discussions and reviews?  What should they be looking for?  More importantly, how do they create a methodology for conducting fair lending reviews?

 

This full-day workshop focuses on the steps lenders can take to prevent, detect and eliminate fair lending problems.  After building a foundation with a brief discussion of the four cornerstones of fair lending, most of the workshop is spent in a “hands on” environment that examines policies, procedures and loan files against the interagency fair lending examination guidelines.  Attendees are then able to take the policy and procedure process and the file testing methodologies from this workshop back to their financial institutions and apply them to their own policies, procedures and loan files.

 

Topics discussed in this seminar include:

 

• How to conduct a fair lending review at your financial institution following the interagency guidelines;
• The four cornerstones of fair lending:  ECOA/Reg B, the Fair Housing Act, HMDA/Reg C and CRA;
• The three types of illegal lending discrimination, and how claims of discrimination may be successfully rebutted;
• Lending practices that can lead to unintentional lending discrimination;
• Best practices for loan interviews, inquiries, applications and adverse action notices;
• How to develop effective internal controls and monitor exceptions to policy and procedures in accordance with the interagency guidelines; and
• How to conduct side-by-side file testing.

 

Who Should Attend?

Since fair lending involves all aspects of the lending process, everyone from the lending side of the institution can benefit from this seminar.  In addition to lenders themselves, this seminar provides helpful information to those who work in loan processing, loan review, HMDA, CRA, compliance, audit and marketing.  Senior lending officers and senior management will also benefit, as they – along with the board of directors – are responsible for insuring compliance with fair lending requirements.

 

Speaker

T. Wayne Hood is a Senior Consultant at PBS.  Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Mr. Hood served as senior vice president and general counsel for a Tennessee bank holding company.  In addition to his role as in-house counsel, during his banking career Mr. Hood served as a compliance officer, security officer, BSA officer and CRA officer.  Mr. Hood has taught a variety of banking and legal seminars and has served on the faculty of the FDIC’s Introduction to Compliance Examination School, the OTS Level I and II Compliance Schools, the Kansas and Nebraska Schools of Banking Compliance School, the New York State Banking Department’s Consumer Compliance Update School, and the Community Bankers Association of Georgia’s Advanced Compliance School.  Mr. Hood has also served on the faculty of compliance schools for the Delaware, Iowa, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania Bankers Associations.  Mr. Hood is a graduate of the ABA’s National Compliance School and National Graduate School of Compliance Management, and he is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager.