Mealey's (February 24, 2023, 9:47 AM EST) -- CHICAGO — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) failed to sufficiently plead that a mortgage lender engaged in discrimination against prospective African-American mortgage borrowers by allegedly discouraging them from applying for mortgage loans in the Chicago metropolitan area because while the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) is unambiguous in its prohibition of discrimination of “applicants” for credit, this prohibition does not pertain to “prospective applicants,” a federal judge in Chicago ruled....