FTC Staff Provides Annual Letter to CFPB On 2021 Equal Credit Opportunity Act Activities

The staff of the Federal Trade Commission has provided the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) an annual summary of its activities enforcing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

The FTC is responsible for ECOA enforcement and education regarding most non-bank financial service providers. In its summary, FTC staff describes the Commission’s work on ECOA-related issues, including activities addressed in enforcement, research, and policy development such as:

• an amicus curiae brief filed jointly along with the CFPB, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Reserve Board with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in John Fralish v. Bank of America, arguing that the ECOA’s protections do not end the moment an extension of credit begins, and that the ECOA and Regulation B “establish that ‘applicants’ they protect include both those currently seeking credit and those who previously sought and have since received credit;”
• the FTC’s Serving Communities of Color staff report, showing a number of key differences in the way that fraud and other consumer problems affect communities of color, from the types of problems reported to the methods used to pay scammers;
• the continued work of the agency’s Military Task Force, and FTC initiatives to assist military consumers;
• the FTC’s participation as a member of the Interagency Task Force on Fair Lending, a joint undertaking with the CFPB, DOJ, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the federal banking agencies, which shares information and discusses policy issues; and
• the FTC’s participation as a member of the Interagency Fair Lending Methodologies Working Group, with the CFPB, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, DOJ, HUD, and the federal banking agencies, to coordinate and share information on analytical methodologies used in enforcement of and supervision for compliance with fair lending laws, including ECOA.

The summary also outlines the Commission’s business and consumer education efforts on fair lending issues.

The Commission vote approving the summary was 4-0. A copy of the summary was also provided to the Federal Reserve Board.