Which of the following practices is required by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)?

The practice mandated by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) ensures that lending decisions are made without considering an applicant's demographic factors such as race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age. This is crucial to promote fairness and equality in credit access, allowing all individuals an equal opportunity to obtain loans regardless of their personal characteristics. By following this requirement, lenders help eliminate discrimination in the credit process and affirm that lending decisions should solely rely on financial qualifications and creditworthiness rather than any unrelated attributes.

In this context, while evaluating applicants based on credit history is important, it must be done with full awareness that demographic factors should not play a role in that assessment. Additionally, while providing reasoning for rejecting applications is good practice and promotes transparency, it is not a requirement under ECOA. The emphasis is on ensuring that the decision-making process is non-discriminatory to uphold the principle of equal credit opportunity for all applicants.