Discriminatory Financial Practice

A Discriminatory Financial Practice is a financial service practice that systematically treats individuals or groups differently in financial service provision based on protected characteristics rather than on legitimate financial risk factors.

• AKA: Financial Discrimination, Discriminatory Lending Practice, Biased Financial Practice.
• Context:
  • It can typically violate Equal Credit Laws through discriminatory financial practice implementation.
  • It can typically target Protected Class Members via discriminatory financial practice criteria.
  • It can typically create Financial Access Barriers using discriminatory financial practice mechanisms.
  • It can typically operate through Financial Institutions implementing discriminatory financial practice policies.
  • It can typically result in Disparate Impacts on discriminatory financial practice affected groups.
  • ...
  • It can often perpetuate Economic Inequality through discriminatory financial practice wealth effects.
  • It can often utilize Proxy Variables to mask discriminatory financial practice intent.
  • It can often manifest in Lending Decisions, Pricing Decisions, and Service Availability Decisions.
  • It can often resist detection through discriminatory financial practice concealment methods.
  • ...
  • It can range from being an Overt Discriminatory Financial Practice to being a Subtle Discriminatory Financial Practice, depending on its discriminatory financial practice transparency level.
  • It can range from being an Individual Discriminatory Financial Practice to being a Systemic Discriminatory Financial Practice, depending on its discriminatory financial practice institutional scope.
  • It can range from being a Direct Discriminatory Financial Practice to being an Indirect Discriminatory Financial Practice, depending on its discriminatory financial practice implementation method.
  • ...
  • It can be regulated by Financial Regulatory Agencies enforcing discriminatory financial practice prohibitions.
  • It can be documented through Fair Lending Analysis identifying discriminatory financial practice patterns.
  • It can be challenged through Civil Rights Litigation addressing discriminatory financial practice violations.
  • It can be prevented through Fair Lending Compliance Programs implementing discriminatory financial practice safeguards.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Discriminatory Financial Practice Target Characteristics, such as:
    • Racial Discriminatory Financial Practices, such as:
      • Geographic Racial Financial Service Denial denying services based on neighborhood racial composition.
      • Racial Pricing Discrimination charging different rates based on applicant race.
    • Gender Discriminatory Financial Practices, such as:
      • Gender-Based Credit Limit setting lower limits for female applicants.
      • Pregnancy Discrimination in Lending denying credit to pregnant applicants.
    • Age Discriminatory Financial Practices, such as:
      • Elder Financial Exclusion restricting services to elderly customers.
      • Youth Credit Discrimination denying services to qualified young adults.
  • Discriminatory Financial Practice Methods, such as:
    • Algorithmic Discriminatory Financial Practices using discriminatory financial practice algorithms.
    • Policy-Based Discriminatory Financial Practices through discriminatory financial practice written rules.
    • Discretionary Discriminatory Financial Practices via discriminatory financial practice individual decisions.
  • Discriminatory Financial Practice Service Types, such as:
    • Discriminatory Lending Practices affecting loan access.
    • Discriminatory Insurance Practices limiting insurance coverage.
    • Discriminatory Banking Practices restricting account services.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Risk-Based Pricing, which differentiates based on actuarial risk rather than protected characteristics.
  • Financial Inclusion Practice, which actively expands access rather than restricting it.
  • Objective Underwriting, which uses only financial criteria rather than discriminatory factors.
  • Universal Banking Service, which provides equal access regardless of customer characteristics.
• See: Financial Service Practice, Economic Discrimination Practice, Financial Exclusion, Systemic Discrimination Mechanism, Protected Class, Fair Lending Law.

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