Capital Briefs: Fair-Lending Guides Still a Work in Progress

Lenders will have to wait at least three more months to learn the details of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's fair-lending enforcement rules, a top agency official said on Tuesday.

Elizabeth K. Julian, a deputy assistant secretary at HUD, said the agency's much-anticipated enforcement regulations, which were due this month, are still being written.

"I don't know what the words are going to be," she said at a Consumer Bankers Association conference. But she added, "Don't look for us to be doing anything radical out there."

The document is expected to clarify HUD's position on several pivotal fair-lending issues, including a definition of "business necessity" that bankers could rely on to avoid charges that their policies unintentionally discriminate against minorities or women.

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