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Do you see any fair lending issues with allowing loan originators to discount loan document preparation fees for certain customers? – IBA Compliance Connection

Do you see any fair lending issues with allowing loan originators to discount loan document preparation fees for certain customers?

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Allowing loan originators discretion as to pricing of the fees is an ill-advised practice. Any “substantial disparities among prices being quoted or charged to applicants” could be considered an indicator of disparate treatment in pricing or the terms and conditions of loans. FDIC Compliance Manual, Part IV, Fair Lending Laws and Regulations, pages 1.7, 1.13 (June 2006). We recommend that you adjust your fee schedules to reflect the discounted fees and to limit underwriters’ discretion in giving discounts. Eliminating discretionary decisions won’t eliminate the fair lending risk, though; we also recommend that you document in the loan file any legitimate business reasons for lowering the document preparation fees for the two types of loans you identify, refinances and GSE loans. See Supplement I to Part 202—Official Staff Interpretations, comment 6(a)-2 (“The Act and regulation may prohibit a creditor practice that is discriminatory in effect because it has a disproportionately negative impact on a prohibited basis, even though the creditor has no intent to discriminate and the practice appears neutral on its face, unless the creditor practice meets a legitimate business need that cannot reasonably be achieved as well by means that are less disparate in their impact. . . . If there is a demonstrable relationship between the income requirement and creditworthiness for the level of credit involved, however, use of the income standard would likely be permissible.”).