Issuing his own statement on the release of an action plan to promote property appraisal equity, the acting board chairman of the federal bank deposit insurer called the plan “an important step towards addressing barriers faced by families and communities of color.”
In his statement (which followed those issued earlier in the week by other members of his board, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] Director Rohit Chopra and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) Martin Gruenberg praised the effort to “focus attention on an underappreciated facet of discrimination in the mortgage market – appraisal bias that negatively impacts wealth building opportunities for minority homeowners and communities.”
Gruenberg said his agency had made a number of concrete commitments for the action plan to advance property appraisal and valuation equity (PAVE), including:
- Addressing potential bias in automated valuation models by including a nondiscrimination quality control standard in the upcoming rulemaking;
- Issuing guidance to improve the opportunity to have a home valuation reconsidered if the initial valuation is lower than expected;
- Reviewing and updating guidance and procedures to ensure nondiscrimination requirements applicable to appraisals are effectively evaluated in examinations;