A Suggested Analysis for Regulation of Equal Credit Opportunity

In its 1972 report to the President and Congress, the National Commission on Consumer Finance called for legislation to insure that every consumer would have equal access to the credit market and "that credit should never be denied solely because of characteristics such as race, creed, color, occupation or sex." This call reflected both a recognition of the growing economic importance of the ability to make credit purchases and a concern that many consumers were denied credit because of their membership in a class, rather than because of any individual lack of credit worthiness. As part of this broader investigation of the special problems of availability of credit, the Commission identified difficulties women in particular faced in obtaining consumer as well as mortgage credit.