The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) is a United States law (codified at 15 U.S.C.

[4] Failure to comply with Regulation B can subject a financial institution to civil liability for actual and punitive damages in individual or class actions.

[6] A large coalition of women's and civil rights groups pressured the government to pass the ECOA (and the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974) to prohibit such discrimination.

This led her to work on legislation prohibiting discrimination in granting credit to women.

[8] Among other things, the ECOA states that it is illegal for creditors to:[1] The ECOA states that creditors must: When the Banking committee marked up the ECOA, congresswoman Lindy Boggs added the provision banning discrimination due to sex or marital status without informing the other members of the committee beforehand, personally inserting the language on her own and photocopying new versions of the bill.