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This comment is directed towards the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) proposal to enlarge the number of creditors allowed to collect ethnicity and race information specifically, the proposal to amend § 1002.13(b) the requirement should individual(s) choose not to self-identify to require that the “creditor shall then also note on the form, to the extent possible, the ethnicity, race, and sex of the applicant(s) on the basis of visual observation or surname.” This collection method proposed by the CFPB would allow creditors not under the racial and ethnicity reporting requirements of Regulation C of the act to collect such data because in the Bureau’s opinion they might fall within the requirement in another year and this would …show more content…

§ 1691b), grants the CFPB authority to create regulations under the ECOA, which the CFPB uses to justify this change, and these changes can be made “to carry out the purposes of this title . . . in the judgment of the Board are necessary or proper to effectuate the purposes of this title, to prevent circumvention or evasion thereof, or to facilitate or substantiate compliance therewith.” The ECOA prohibits discrimination against a credit applicant in any transaction “on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age” and the purposes of the act touch on sex and marital status discrimination. According to the Pew Research Center, between the 2000 and 2010 census, approximately 10 million Americans changed their racial and ethnic identification (see attached). Furthermore, health researchers have found a mismatch between self-selected race and “observer-selected” race, as well as changing social perception and bias that causes different people to observe and select race and ethnicity differently (see attached). Observer based race and ethnicity designations therefore appear to be flawed, allowing creditors who are not subject to the Regulation C reporting requirements does not seem to further the proposes of the act or “facilitate” compliance with the act. Indeed, it would appear to do the opposite as creditors will likely be wrong in their observer identification and therefore, if the Bureau or another

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