Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: FTC staff reports 2014 Equal Credit Opportunity Act activities to CFPB, (Feb 18, 2015)

By Dan Selcke, J.D.

In response to a request for information from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the FTC staff provided a report on their activities related to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) over the course of 2014, the agency announced today.

In a letter, FTC Associate Director for the Division of Financial Practices James Dolan began by outlining the FTC’s ongoing responsibility to enforce the ECOA as well as the CFPB rules applicable to entities within the FTC’s jurisdiction, which include most non-bank providers of financial services.

Dolan discussed several workshops and seminars that the FTC hosted throughout 2014, all of which touched on the importance of the ECOA as a vehicle for consumer protection. First, he described a workshop designed to examine the use and impact of “big data.” Topics at the workshop included the scope of the ECOA and how big data impacted the extension of credit, employment offers, and insurance to consumers. He also discussed, among other things, a seminar on alternative scoring products during which speakers touched on the protections offered by the ECOA, how its requirements could reduce discrimination in lending, and whether certain predictive scoring products could fall outside its reach.

The letter also detailed agency efforts to educate consumers and businesses about issues related to the consumer credit transaction to which the ECOA applied. For example, as part of its workshop on big data, the FTC issued a blog post that discussed laws, such as the ECOA, which protected classes based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The post, which focused on the effect of big data on advertising, considered whether members of such protected classes could see entirely different ads due to different advertising delivery approaches. Also in 2014, the FTC updated its consumer education brochure on auto financing issues, as well as its financial education site with additional information on varied topics related to consumer credit.

News: ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews