Fair Lending


Book Description

Federal Fair Lending Laws, enacted in 1968 and 1974, prohibit discrimination in all forms of credit transactions, including consumer and business loans as well as mortgage loans. This report reviews federal efforts to strengthen enforcement of the fair lending laws, discusses the challenges federal regulators face in their efforts to detect discrimination and ensure compliance, and recommends actions to meet some of those challenges. Charts and tables.







Mortgage Discrimination


Book Description




Fair Lending


Book Description

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) -- the "fair lending laws" -- prohibit discrimination in lending. Responsibility for their oversight is shared among three enforcement agencies -- HUD, the FTC, and Dept. of Justice -- and five depository institution regulators -- the FDIC, the Fed. Reserve, Nat. Credit Union Admin., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. This report examines: (1) data used by agencies and the public to detect potential violations and options to enhance the data; (2) fed. oversight of lenders that are identified as at heightened risk of violating the fair lending laws; and (3) recent cases involving fair lending laws and associated enforcement challenges. Illus.




Mortgage Lending, Racial Discrimination and Federal Policy


Book Description

First published in 1997, this volume features a wealth of contributions discussing mortgage lending discrimination and the role of the FHA, fair lending enforcement and the Decatur case, along with the future of mortgage discrimination research. This key civil rights debate in the wake of the Fair Housing Act 25 years prior is evaluated and clarified through rigorous review of fair lending research, applied projects and enforcement activities to date. It argues forcefully that the right to take out a mortgage to buy a home should be conditioned only upon one’s credit worthiness and not on one’s race or ethnic group.







Fair Lending


Book Description

The Federal Reserve Board¿s (FRB) Regulation B prohibits lenders from collecting certain data from loan applicants, such as their race or gender, for non-mortgage loans (e.g., small bus. loans). FRB has stated that this provision of Regulation B minimizes the chances that lenders would use such data in an unlawful and discriminatory manner. However, others argue that the prohibition limits the capacity of researchers and regulators to identify discrimination in non-mortgage lending. This report analyzes: studies on possible discrimination in non-mortgage lending and the data used in them; FRB¿s 2003 decision to retain the prohibition of voluntary data collection; and the benefits and costs of a data collection and reporting requirement.