JOSÉ FERNÁNDEZ

José Fernández is a Director at Fideres, leading the firm’s U.S. Competition and Discrimination practices. He holds a PhD and an MRes in Economics from the University of Bath, UK, and a BA in Economics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. At Fideres, Jose spearheads the development of the firm's Antitrust and Civil Rights litigation services, applying rigorous economic analysis to support complex legal disputes.

Prior to joining Fideres, Jose served in senior economist roles across several U.S. government agencies. Most recently, he was the Chief Economist for the Office of Systemic Investigations within the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In this role, he oversaw the development of advanced analytical methodologies for fair lending investigations and provided expert economic guidance in litigation, policy analysis, and regulatory enforcement related to mortgage pricing discrimination, redlining, denial disparities, and algorithmic bias. Jose was also listed as a government expert in multiple housing and civil rights enforcement complaints brought by HUD and represented the agency in inter-agency initiatives with other federal regulators.

Jose began his tenure at HUD as a Research Economist in the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), where he conducted economic and policy research on housing finance, fair lending, and consumer credit access. He also contributed to the evaluation and improvement of FHA’s TOTAL Scorecard, the automated underwriting system used to assess borrower credit risk.

In 2020, Jose served as a Senior Financial Economist at Ginnie Mae, where he developed econometric models to support the agency’s mortgage-backed securities (MBS) guarantee programs for FHA, VA, and USDA loans. He also served as the leading expert in the LIBOR-to-SOFR transition, advising both Ginnie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on implementation strategies to ensure mortgage product compliance during the benchmark rate change.

Jose’s research has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals, including Research in International Business and Finance and Defence and Peace Economics. In addition to his policy work, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in econometrics, microeconomics, and macroeconomics at institutions including George Washington University, University of Bath, University of Bristol, Albertus Magnus College, and Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP).