Description
Fair lending has seen a dramatic shift under the Trump administration. In August 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) titled "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans" directing federal banking regulators to investigate financial institutions that have restricted access to financial services on the basis of political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities. In response to EO 14331, the OCC, FRB, FDIC, and SBA have all begun removing references to “reputation risk” in examination manuals, handbooks, and guidance, the OCC has issued two bulletins regarding debanking, and the SBA is requiring lenders to perform a review for unlawful debanking, reinstate impacted customers, and submit a report of the findings to the SBA.
In April 2025, President Trump issued EO14281, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy. EO 14281 directs agencies to eliminate the use of disparate impact liability in all contexts. The OCC and FDIC have moved the directive in the EO forward by removing references to disparate impact from certain examination publications as well as telling examiners they should not examine banks for disparate impact risk.
The White House also published “America’s AI Action Plan” in July, which sets forth policy goals for the Federal government to facilitate U.S. dominance related to AI, including removing regulations that may hinder AI. This plan seems to be in contrast with states’ concerns regarding potential consumer protection risk created by AI, including that AI reinforces biases and may lack transparency.
Listen as Jonice Gray and Kari Hall, partners with Paul Hastings, discuss the state of fair and responsible lending, emerging risks and risk mitigation.
Presented By
Ms.Gray specializes in work with banks, non-bank financial institutions and other companies providing financial products and services. She works with many of the largest bank and non-bank financial institutions, emerging companies such as fintechs and retailers whose business operations include consumer and small business finance. Ms. Gray’s work is focused on representing corporate and individual clients in high-stakes legal proceedings, including matters initiated by state and federal regulators, private civil litigation, congressional investigations and internal investigations. She also counsels clients on compliance with consumer protection laws. Ms. Gray focuses a substantial portion of her practice on representations involving escalated government examination matters, investigations and enforcement. In this capacity, she routinely provides strategic advice to senior corporate leaders, including Boards of Directors, as they navigate complex, and often unexpected, business and legal challenges. Ms. Gray is well-known for her advisory work in fair and responsible lending and servicing, and is considered one of the nation's experts in this space.
Ms. Hall counsels financial services companies on regulatory, compliance, and enforcement matters, with a focus on consumer lending and retail banking. She advises banks and non-banks on complex regulatory matters, risk management, and enforcement matters across deposits, payments, mortgage, auto lending, and open-ended credit. Ms. Hall has particularly deep experience advising on deposit account and card products, services, and disclosures, electronic fund transfers and other electronic transfers and payments, fair lending, fair servicing, and unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP). She advises clients regarding product development and compliance and represents clients in internal reviews and investigations, as well as examinations, investigations, and enforcement actions.
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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Date + Time
- event
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
- schedule
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
I. Introduction
II. The current state of fair lending under the Trump administration, including what is happening at federal agencies
III. Debanking and actions by federal agencies to date
IV. The elimination of disparate impact at the federal level
V. The federal approach to AI growth and its impact on fair lending risk
VI. States approaches to fair lending, and how those approaches may differ from that of the Federal government
VIII. Best practices for compliance and risk mitigation
The panel will address these and other key issues:
- Federal agency structural and personnel changes
- The rise of debanking probes, including the SBA’s inquiries and expectations of prudential banking regulations
- The demise of disparate impact
- Current focal points in anti-discrimination cases, including theories focused on AI
- Emerging tensions between federal and state regulatory requirements as to fair lending compliance
- Effective navigation of risks in the current environment, and those that will be focal points in the event of shifts in Congress and/or the White House on the road ahead
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