Under 12 CFR § 338.4(b), every institution supervised by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that makes loans for the purpose of purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining a dwelling or any loan secured by a dwelling must display the Equal Housing Lender (EHL) poster.
The FDIC just recently issued FIL-47-2023 to clarify the requirements for Equal Housing Lender posters after a series of changes. These were originally prompted by a name change of the FDIC’s complaint-receiving entity, from the Consumer Response Center to the National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance as well as introducing the requirement to include the web address of the FDIC’s web-based complaint portal. The effective date for these changes was June 23, 2023, and according to the FIL, institutions are expected to make good-faith efforts to update the EHL posters as soon as reasonably practicable.
There has been confusion around exactly what was supposed to be on the EHL poster, as the rules have changed a few times in the past few years. First, in February 2021, the FDIC amended the regulations to make the EHL poster requirement applicable to State savings associations, and revised the regulation by removing the mailing address for the Consumer Response Center and replacing it with instructions to insert an address stated on the FDIC’s website at www.fdic.gov.
In August 2022, the FDIC updated the regulation again through a technical correction to replace the reference to Consumer Response Center with its new name, the National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance, and to add the web address for the National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance complaint portal. However, when updating the regulation, the instruction to include the mailing address was inadvertently removed. Further amendments were required to make a couple of technical changes, including reinserting the instructions to include the mailing address for the National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance.
One important thing to note is that, at least at the time of this publication, the updated regulation and the FIL seem to be slightly different. According to the FIL, institutions are required to update their EHL posters as follows:
National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
1100 Walnut Street, Box #11
Kansas City, MO 64106
https://ask.fdic.gov/fdicinformationandsupportcenter
However, the latest final rule/regulation (12 CFR § 338.4(a)) indicates the following:
The Equal Housing Lender Poster shall be at least 11 by 14 inches in size and have the following text:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance, [FDIC-supervised institution should insert mailing address for National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance found at www.fdic.gov]…
As you can see, this has been a relatively controversial issue over the past few months, so if you have any questions about the latest changes, how they might affect your institution, or how to get your EHL poster reviewed for the latest address changes or any other compliance-related topic, feel free to reach out to us on the Hotline.