In a March 26, 2025, press release, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it is seeking to vacate the settlement it reached back in late 2024 with Townstone Financial related to fair lending. In vacating the settlement, acting director of the CFPB, Russ Vought, would like the agency to return the $105,000 penalty Townstone paid.

The press release from Vought states the CFPB ran a “redlining screen” catching 22,000 companies and then winnowed it down to a handful with unexplained “qualitative research.” Townstone was targeted because it was a small firm (<10 employees) and had a radio show touching on political topics, making it easy for the CFPB to bully. To reiterate, no one came forward to complain about Townstone, they were “drawn out of hat” by a computer model run by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-driven CFPB bureaucrats.

The press release goes on to explain the CFPB targeted Townstone, not based on any act of discriminatory conduct, but solely on perceived racial disparities in mortgage application and origination statistics. The disparity was an agency-defined “shortfall” of just 31 applications from “majority-minority” areas, out of 876 total applications in a three-year period. To Vought, this amounted to the CFPB wanting a de-facto mortgage quota.

Apparently the CFPB used an audio mining software to search Townstone’s radio show and podcasts finding they engaged in political speech critical of the CFPB. They identified 16 minutes out of nearly 79 hours of radio content (.33%) they deemed “disconcerting.” The press release points out, in a survey of black respondents conducted by a consumer testing firm paid for by Townstone, no one indicated they took offense to Townstone’s radio show.

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