Equal Credit Opportunity — 2003-03-18 [03-5666]

The Board is publishing a final rule amending Regulation B, pursuant to the Board's policy of periodically reviewing and updating its regulations. Regulation B implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Among other things, the final rule retains the general prohibition against inquiring about, or noting, applicant characteristics for nonmortgage credit transactions, and creates an exception when such data are collected for the purpose of conducting a self-test. The final rule also requires creditors to retain certain records related to prescreened solicitations for 25 months, to enable Federal financial enforcement agencies to assess whether or how national origin, race, age, or other prohibited bases of discrimination under the ECOA are taken into account in prescreened solicitations.