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Comment Period: Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B)

AGENCY:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

ACTION:

Proposed rule; request for public comment.

SUMMARY:

The CFPB has proposed a rule that would remove disparate impact from ECOA enforcement, refine the standard for discouraging prospective applicants, and impose new limits on special-purpose credit programs. As it relates to discouragement, the proposal would revise the standard so that liability applies only where a lender knows or should know its statements would deter a prospective applicant – in turn, eliminating liability “based solely on disparate-impact-like discouragement claims. ” The rule also clarifies that affirmative or targeted marketing to one group is not, by itself, discouraging to groups not included in the campaign – an interesting stance given how sharply it seems to diverge from UDAAP principles that have long warned lenders to avoid practices that steer, favor, or quietly fence out certain consumers.
For special-purpose credit programs, the Bureau proposes to bar for-profit lenders from using race, sex, or national origin as qualification criteria and adds several new restrictions on the use of other common characteristics. Among them a lender would need to demonstrate that applicants sharing the characteristic would not receive credit under existing standards and that the credit sought could not be provided through a program that does not rely on an otherwise prohibited basis.

DATES:

Comments must be received on or before December 15, 2025.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/13/2025-19864/equal-credit-opportunity-act-regulation-b

  • December 15, 2025
  • Time: All Day
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