Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice Withdraw Joint Statement on Fair Lending and Credit Opportunities for Noncitizen Borrowers
AI Analysis
On January 12, 2026, the CFPB and DOJ withdrew their October 2023 joint statement concerning creditors’ consideration of immigration or citizenship status in credit decisions. The withdrawal confirms that ECOA and Regulation B do not impose a general prohibition or additional limitation on considering such information, while the prohibition on using it to discriminate on a prohibited basis remains unchanged.
Key dates
- 2023-10-12
- CFPB and DOJ issued the joint statement concerning fair lending and credit opportunities for noncitizen borrowers; it was published in the Federal Register on October 18, 2023.
- 2026-01-12
- CFPB and DOJ withdrew the October 2023 joint statement. The withdrawal was published at 91 FR 1138 and became effective on this date.
Suggested considerations
- Compliance teams may wish to identify underwriting, eligibility, pricing, servicing, and adverse-action processes that reference immigration, citizenship, visa, residency, or work-authorization status.
- Firms should consider documenting the legitimate credit, repayment-risk, creditor-rights, remedies, or legal-compliance rationale for collecting or using immigration-related information, rather than treating the withdrawal as an unrestricted authorization to use the information for any purpose.
- Firms may wish to reassess policies adopted in response to the 2023 joint statement, while preserving controls designed to prevent intentional discrimination or unjustified disparate treatment based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age.
- Compliance teams may wish to test whether immigration-related variables or proxies produce inconsistent eligibility, pricing, or servicing outcomes across protected groups and whether decisioning documentation supports the stated legitimate purpose.
- Firms should consider retaining existing fair-lending governance, adverse-action notice, data-quality, model-risk, and complaint-monitoring controls because the withdrawal does not amend ECOA or Regulation B or eliminate consumer rights.
- California creditors and other firms operating under state or local fair-lending laws may wish to separately assess obligations that are not displaced by the federal withdrawal, including potentially broader state civil-rights protections.
What changed
The nonbinding October 2023 joint statement is withdrawn effective January 12, 2026; no new statutory or regulatory obligation, safe harbor, or mandatory underwriting standard is created. The agencies state that creditors may consider immigration or citizenship status, including when assessing creditworthiness, financial risk, creditor rights and remedies regarding repayment, or compliance with other laws. Regulation B continues to permit consideration of information obtained so long as it is not used to discriminate on a prohibited basis, and 12 CFR 1002.6(b)(7) permits consideration of immigration status or permanent-resident status and additional information necessary to ascertain creditor rights and remedies regarding repayment. The agencies also disavow any implication that the withdr
Compliance impact
The practical impact is primarily interpretive and supervisory rather than a new compliance burden: firms may have greater flexibility to consider immigration or citizenship status for legitimate underwriting and creditor-rights purposes, but ECOA and Regulation B’s prohibition on discrimination on a prohibited basis remains in force. The agencies state that firms may continue operating under the
Who is affected
Related regulations
References
AI-generated analysis. May contain errors or omissions — verify with the original CFPB source before acting. Full disclaimer.
What the CFPB said
CFPB and Justice have withdrawn a joint statement linked to a creditor’s consideration of an individual’s immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Published by CFPB . Read the full notice at the source for the authoritative text.