Source: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) issued a press release on December 15, 2025, detailing its formal submission to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The LDF is urgently calling for the withdrawal of proposed policy changes that would relax regulations on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in credit underwriting. The organization argues that the proposed framework fails to adequately address the "disparate impact" of algorithmic scoring models, which often rely on alternative data points that correlate with race, thereby entrenching historical financial inequities.

The statement highlights that without rigorous testing and interpretability mandates, AI-driven lending tools act as "black boxes" that can systematically deny loans to Black applicants at higher rates than similarly situated white applicants. The LDF emphasizes that efficiency in financial markets cannot come at the expense of civil rights laws. They urge the CFPB to enforce stricter oversight mechanisms that require lenders to prove their algorithms are nondiscriminatory and to provide specific, accurate reasons for adverse credit decisions, ensuring that technological advancement does not result in a new era of digital redlining.