The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (âECOAâ) was enacted to ensure that credit is made available to all creditworthy applicants without discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, race, color, religion, national origin, age, or other prohibited bases under the ECOA. The ECOA allows for creditors to collect information for self-testing against these criteria, while not allowing creditors to use this information in making credit decisions of applicants. For certain mortgage applications, the ECOA requires creditors to ask for some of the prohibited information for monitoring purposes. In addition, for certain mortgage applications, creditors are required to send a copy of any appraisal or written valuation used in the application process to the applicant in a timely fashion.
The ECOA also prescribes creditors to inform applicants of decisions made on credit applications. In particular, where creditors make adverse actions on credit applications or existing accounts, creditors must inform consumers as to why the adverse action was taken, such that credit applicants can challenge errors on their accounts or learn how to become more creditworthy. Creditors must retain all application information for 25 months, including notices sent and any information related to adverse actions.
Finally, the ECOA requires creditors who furnish applicant information to a consumer credit bureau to reflect participation of the applicantâs spouse, if the spouse if permitted to use or contractually liable on the account.
PL:
Pub.L. 111 - 203 1376
Name of Law: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
US Code:
15 USC 1591
Name of Law: Equal Credit Opportunity Act
The new estimates calculated by the CFPB reflect improved calculations done on the market. In particular, the previous estimates appear to have been mislabeled and therefore erroneous. The current entry of annual responses appear to be the previous estimated number of respondents in the market, while the current respondents are only those respondents that fall under the appraisals sections of Regulation B and do not reflect the entire market of respondents under the ECOA. The current Cost Burden was misattributed to those labor costs associated with the burden hours arising from the ECOA, and did not represent any extra materials costs. The labor costs are now properly positioned in section 12 of this Supporting Statement.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.