Recent moves by federal regulators and lawmakers signal increasing scrutiny over online platforms for housing discrimination.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week fined Citibank $25 million for violating the Fair Housing Act by failing to offer preferential rates to some borrowers based on their race, color, national origin or sex.

CFPB to Hold Spring 2019 Advisory Committee Meetings; FTC Sends Annual Report to CFPB With ECOA Activities; Consumer Groups Seek CFPB Records on Eric Blankenstein; CFPB Warns of Widespread Elder Financial Abuse; CFPB Announces System for Prepaid Issuers to Submit Account Agreements.

The CFPB last month filed its first lawsuit under the leadership of Kathy Kraninger. Interestingly, the lawsuit seeks to enforce a 2017 civil investigative demand that was issued under former Director Richard Cordray.

The CFPB intends to bring an enforcement action against Equifax over the massive data breach in 2017 that exposed personal information of more than 140 million people, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The CFPB and Florida regulators last week asked a federal court to merge their lawsuits against mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial Corp. in order to avoid the risk of future jury inconsistency and to reduce their respective burden.

Almost two dozen Democratic state attorneys general have opposed the CFPB’s proposal to encourage industrywide innovation under the cover of regulatory sandboxes. In a comment letter sent to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, the AGs said the proposal is “ill-considered.”

The CFPB has entered into a settlement with a group of offshore payday lenders who allegedly engaged in deceptive and unfair marketing and billing activities.

State authorities will focus their enforcement actions this year on tackling redlining and unfair, deceptive and abusive acts or practices in order to fill the enforcement gap created at the federal level, industry attorneys predicted.

The CFPB last week fined a broker $1 for bilking veterans out of their pensions. It is the third enforcement action this month by the consumer watchdog, now led by Director Kathy Kraninger.