Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)
The ECOA baseline review modules will be used by examiners during ECOA baseline reviews to identify and analyze the risks of ECOA violations, to facilitate the identification of specific types of ECOA violations, and to inform decisions about fair lending priorities for future CFPB reviews.
ECOA baseline reviews are a type of fair lending review conducted by the CFPB, in addition to targeted ECOA reviews and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reviews. ECOA's targeted review includes an in-depth review of a specific area of fair lending risk and is conducted using ECOA's examination procedures within the CFPB's Supervision and Examination Manual.
An HMDA audit includes testing transactions for the accuracy of HMDA data and is performed using the HMDA examination procedures within the CFPB's Oversight and Examination Manual.
When scheduling the baseline review, examiners will work with the Office of Fair Lending and the CFPB Regional Division to determine which ECOA baseline review units will be completed. After the appropriate modules have been selected and prior to the examination, examinees will submit the Foundation information requests corresponding to the selected modules.
Generally, examiners will complete the units during the on-site part of the examination. In some cases, it may be possible for examinees to start completing the modules before the on-site examination part. The completed units will be included in the test worksheets and can be reviewed in conjunction with any Fair Lending statistical analysis to get a complete picture of the entity's Fair Lending compliance and Fair Lending risk.
In addition to responses to requests for information, examiners may review other sources of information to complete the units, including publicly available information about the entity and information obtained in interviews or other oversight meetings with the entity.
Where applicable, the modules include references to relevant risk factors for coverage in Part I Interagency Fair Lending Examination Procedures (eg, O1, U1) or the CFR (eg, 12 CFR 1002.9). These references are included in parentheses at the end of the specific steps.