Proposed changes to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that are intended to provide greater clarity for home lenders have been finalized.
Back in March, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
proposed amendments to ECOA regulations that would provide additional flexibility for mortgage lenders in the collection of consumer ethnicity and race information.
Under the proposal,
lenders would maintain the same practices regardless of their loan volume or other characteristics — enabling more lenders to adopt forms like the Uniform Residential Loan Application that include expanded requests for information regarding a consumer’s ethnicity and race.
On Wednesday, the CFPB issued a final rule indicating that the ECOA rules have been amended. It also finalized other amendments to Regulation B, which implements the ECOA, and its commentary to facilitate compliance with Reg B’s requirements for the collection and retention of information.
“The changes finalized today, initially proposed in March, will provide compliance flexibility for individual mortgage lenders, and also support the broader mortgage industry’s ability to use consistent forms and compliance practices,” the statement said.
The bureau additionally said it seeks comment on proposed policy guidance describing the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data it proposes to make available to the public beginning in 2019. This includes modifications to protect consumers’ privacy.
