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ยป VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 19 AMENDMENTS TO EQUAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY ACT EXPECTED e Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a proposal to amend certain regulations in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), with the aim of providing additional flexibility for mortgage lenders in the collection of consumer ethnicity and race information. e proposed amendments should provide greater clarity to lenders regarding their obligations under the law, and according to the CFPB will promote compliance with rules intended to ensure customers are treated fairly. "is law is a key part of the government's commitment to root out discrimination," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said. "is proposal will help industry comply with the law and help protect consumers against illegal discrimination." e ECOA was enacted in October 1974, making it unlawful to discriminate against any credit applicant based on race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, except in certain circumstances. e CFPB's proposal to amend Regulation B of the ECOA would provide compliance flexibility for individual mortgage lenders and would also support the broader mortgage industry's ability to use consistent forms and compliance practices. e proposal would allow more lenders to use application forms with expanded requests for information from a consumer regarding ethnicity and race. Creditors may have to collect and retain certain information about applicants for certain loans under Regulation B, and in some cases, financial institutions may be required to report applicant information under Regulation C. e CFPB had previously issued amendments to Regulation C in October 2015, including changes to the collection of ethnicity and race information from applicants. e proposed amendments to Regulation B would give credit institutions additional flexibility in how it collects applicant information, so that they may better align with Regulation C. e proposal would allow creditors to collect information from applicants in situations when they would otherwise not be required to do so. CFPB TO RE-EXAMINE REGULATION e Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is set to review of a host of major rules that it has put in place, including the qualified mortgage rule, according to Chris D'Angelo, Associate Director of the CFPB's division of Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending. At an American Bankers Association meeting in Washington, D.C., in March, D'Angelo stated that the CFPB is "embarking" on the process of reviewing rules that it has put in place as mandated under the Dodd-Frank Act. e qualified mortgage rule, a standard setup to make sure borrowers can repay their mortgages, as well as other mortgage servicing and home lending regulations, are set to come up for review. e CFPB wants to "try to see what the real-world effects on the market" these regulations have. All rules created by the CFPB are to be reviewed five years after they take effect, as mandated by Dodd-Frank. e goal is to make sure that the rules set by the Bureau are not putting too much burden on financial institutions and are providing the benefits to consumers they were intended to provide. Recently, the CFPB announced that it has begun review of its remittance rule, which took effect in October 2013. is rule requires institutions that provide remittance transfers originating in the U.S. to disclose their fees up front. Following this review, the Bureau made changes intended to make it easier for banks and other firms to comply with these regulations. D'Angelo said the CFPB will be moving on to reviewing mortgage rules in the coming weeks and months. e CFPB finalized several regulations for the mortgage servicing industry and other aspects of the mortgage market in January 2013. He also said at the American Bankers Association meeting that the CFPB is still finding problems with the mortgage servicing industry despite these rules being in place. According to D'Angelo these problems emanate from "the third-party service providers and the folks who develop your technology solutions." Although changes are expected to take place, the bureau does not want to eliminate the incentive compensation practices that banks have in place. "We know that you need those in order to manage larger organizations and how you drive your employees," D'Angelo said.