# Fair Lending for All Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill creates new tools to catch and punish banks and lenders that discriminate against people when deciding who gets loans. Right now, if a lender denies you a mortgage, car loan, or credit card based on your race, gender, religion, or other protected characteristics, it's illegal—but catching these violations is difficult. This bill makes enforcement much stronger and adds real criminal consequences for the worst offenders.

The bill establishes a new Office of Fair Lending Testing within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This office will send undercover testers to banks and lenders pretending to be customers looking for loans. By comparing how these testers are treated based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or other characteristics, the government can identify lenders that are treating people unfairly. If violations are found, they get reported to the Justice Department for prosecution. The bill also expands what counts as illegal discrimination to include denying credit based on someone's ZIP code, census tract, or whether they receive public assistance like food stamps.

The penalties get serious for repeat offenders. Someone caught discriminating once faces up to a year in prison and $50,000 in fines. But if a lender has a pattern of discrimination, the penalties jump dramatically—up to 20 years in prison and $100,000 per violation. Executives and board members who knowingly allow their company to discriminate can personally face up to 5 years in prison and fines equal to their compensation. The bill also requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to review loan applications and processes to catch discriminatory practices before they harm people, and it expands data collection on mortgage lending to include sexual orientation and gender identity so discrimination patterns can be tracked and identified.

Fair Lending for All Act

Green, Al

Fair Lending for All Act This bill modifies provisions related to prohibited credit discrimination. The bill adds sexual orientation, gender identity, and an applicant's location based on zip code or census tract as classes protected against discrimination with respect to credit transactions. (Currently, discrimination is prohibited on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or because an applicant receives public assistance.) The bill establishes criminal penalties for violations of prohibited credit discrimination. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is required to review loan applications for compliance with specified consumer laws and to establish an Office of Fair Lending Testing.