Since the CFPB issued its guidance on indirect auto finance in March 2013, lawmakers and industry have been asking the CFPB to provide details concerning its methodology and proxies for analyzing potential fair lending violations. While the CFPB has provided some information in response to letters from lawmakers, its responses have left many questions unanswered. Some of those questions could be answered by the CFPB in a white paper or report to be issued in conjunction with its field hearing tomorrow on auto finance. (As we previously said, we are expecting the CFPB to announce the release of a proposed larger participant rule on auto finance tomorrow.)

According to a Bloomberg article published yesterday by Carter Dougherty, individuals who have been briefed by the CFPB on its plans for the hearing have indicated that the CFPB at the hearing (1) “will outline its methodology for determining whether discrimination is occurring,” and (2) reveal information about how it has reached nonpublic resolutions of fair lending issues with certain banks.