Equal Credit Opportunity Act

Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require financial institutions to collect and maintain certain data in connection with credit applications made by women- or minority-owned businesses and small businesses.  Such data includes the race, sex, and ethnicity of the principal owners of the business. 

In April 2011, the CFPB issued guidance indicating that the CFPB would not enforce Section 1071 until the CFPB issued implementing regulations. … Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued “ECOA Baseline Review Procedures” to be used by its examiners.  (The CFPB has labeled the procedures “guidance” and did not add them to its Supervision and Examination Manual.)  The procedures consist of six “baseline review modules” for examiners to use “during ECOA baseline reviews to identify and analyze risks of ECOA violations, to facilitate the identification of certain types of ECOA and Regulation B violations, and to inform fair lending prioritization decisions for future CFPB reviews.” … Continue Reading

We have previously blogged about the CFPB’s laser-like focus on the fair lending practices of banks and non-banks purchasing auto finance consumer contracts from auto dealers. See here, here, here, here, and here.

In many of our posts, we have been very critical of the Bureau’s deployment of the disparate impact theory for identifying violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.… Continue Reading

The Bureau’s Mortgage Servicing Examination Procedures, released on October 13, 2011, offer a fascinating insight into the CFPB’s supervision and enforcement priorities. There’s a great deal worthy of comment in the Procedures, but here I want to highlight one aspect of them: the heavy focus on the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.… Continue Reading