Dominique Stump
A contractor team of Summit Consulting and BlueLabs will provide data science support to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under a new five-year blanket purchase agreement.
Summit said Thursday it created multiple economic models to analyze the significance of race on lending decisions based on bank underwriting and pricing criteria in an effort to identify banks that employ lending practices the agency views as potentially discriminatory based on race.
The company worked with CFPB attorneys to discern which lending programs required investigations, provided analytical support to the agency’s office of fair lending and equal opportunity, and offered ad hoc statistical support to bureau staff.
“Advanced data analysis is integral to effective financial regulation, and our two firms have the combined data science experience to support CFPB in furthering the public interest,” said Erek Dyskant, vice president of impact BlueLabs.
Anthony Curcio, a principal at Summit, said data science is a potential method to defend financial markets against abusive practices.
CFPB was created under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act after the 2008 financial crisis and subsequently launched in July 2011 with a mission to monitor abusive practices and establish rules against discrimination in the financial marketplace.
