Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra issued a statement regarding the final report of the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE), according to a release from the CFPB.
“Today’s report underscores the critical importance of fair and accurate appraisals in residential real estate. Discriminatory home valuations, whether computed by an algorithm or conducted in-person, undermine longstanding goals for fair housing and fair lending across our country,” Chopra said in the release. “I appreciate the work by Secretary Marcia Fudge and Ambassador Susan Rice in leading this effort. The CFPB will be taking a number of actions to further the work of the task force.”
“First, the CFPB will be taking an active leadership role in the Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council,” Chopra added. “Congress has assigned important responsibilities to the Appraisal Subcommittee, and it is important to live up to these expectations. In particular, we will be closely scrutinizing the work of The Appraisal Foundation, which wields enormous power to set standards and levy fees on the professional appraiser community.”
Additionally, along with other federal financial regulators, Chopra said the CFPB will be working to implement a dormant authority in federal law to ensure that algorithmic valuations are fair and accurate. The CFPB has already begun to solicit input from small businesses in order to develop a proposed rule, and it is committed to addressing potential bias in these automated valuation models.
“We will also be taking additional steps through our research, through our supervisory examinations of financial institutions and their service providers, and through law enforcement actions,” Chopra said. “We welcome input and engagement from the public, the professional appraiser community, and across the residential real estate industry.”