Equal Credit Opportunity Act deadlines

Regulation B (12 CFR Part 1002) runs nine clocks on a mortgage application, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) deadlines a loan originator meets most often are three of them: 30 days to notify the applicant of action taken on a completed application, three business days from application to deliver the notice of the right to receive appraisal copies, and 25 months to keep the file. Each is a different section, and several of them start from different events. The eCFR text they are read from here is Regulation B; the amendments of July 21, 2026 touched ss. 1002.4(b), 1002.6(a), 1002.8 and 1002.15(d)(1)(ii), none of which this post relies on.

Every clock, with its section

The 30 days start from a completed application

The 30-day clock in s. 1002.9(a)(1)(i) runs from the day the creditor receives a completed application, and s. 1002.2(f) defines both halves of that phrase. An application is an oral or written request for an extension of credit made in accordance with the creditor’s procedures for the type of credit requested. An application is completed once the creditor has everything it regularly obtains and considers for that amount and type of credit, credit reports and any approvals or reports by government agencies included. The creditor has to exercise reasonable diligence in getting that information, so sitting on a missing document does not stop the clock forever.

An adverse action notice is in writing and carries the action taken, the creditor’s name and address, a statement of the provisions of section 701(a) of ECOA, the name and address of the federal agency that administers compliance for that creditor, and either the specific reasons or a disclosure of the applicant’s right to get them. Where the creditor takes the second route, the applicant has 60 days from the creditor’s notification to ask, and the creditor has 30 days from the request to answer. Section 1002.9(b)(2) rules out the two easy non-answers: that the decision rested on the creditor’s internal standards or policies, or that the applicant did not reach a qualifying score, is not a statement of specific reasons.

An incomplete application has two clocks, not one

Section 1002.9(a)(1)(ii) runs 30 days from the day the creditor takes adverse action on an incomplete application, unless the creditor instead gives notice under s. 1002.9(c). Section 1002.9(c)(1) runs 30 days from the day the creditor receives the incomplete application. The first measures from the decision, the second from the mail arriving.

Within 30 days of receiving an application that is incomplete on matters the applicant can complete, s. 1002.9(c)(1) gives the creditor a choice: notify of action taken, or send a notice of incompleteness. The notice of incompleteness is written, specifies the information needed, sets a reasonable period for the applicant to supply it, and says that failure to supply it ends consideration of the application. If the applicant answers in time, the creditor takes action and notifies under s. 1002.9(a). If the applicant does not, the creditor’s obligation under the section ends. A creditor may raise the missing items orally first, but if the file stays incomplete the written notice still has to go.

Two smaller rules hang off the same section. A creditor that received no more than 150 applications in the preceding calendar year may give the notifications orally (s. 1002.9(d)). And where the parties expected the applicant to chase the outcome, an approved application the applicant has not asked about within 30 days may be treated as withdrawn (s. 1002.9(e)).

The two valuation clocks

Section 1002.14 covers any application for credit to be secured by a first lien on a dwelling. The creditor mails or delivers the notice of the applicant’s right to receive copies of all written appraisals no later than the third business day after receiving the application. Where a loan was not first-lien at application and later becomes so, the same three business days run from the day the creditor works that out.

The copies themselves come promptly upon completion, or three business days before consummation, whichever is earlier. The applicant may waive the timing and take the copies at or before consummation, but the waiver has to be given at least three business days before consummation, and if the deal then falls through the creditor still has 30 days from the day it decides consummation will not happen to send the copies. The creditor may not charge for the copies, though it may charge a reasonable fee for the appraisal itself, and the duty applies whether credit is extended, denied, incomplete or withdrawn.

The CFPB’s ECOA valuations delivery factsheet flags something worth knowing cold, on page 2: the rule does not define “business day” for these copies. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s own suggestion is to apply a reasonable definition, which may include counting Saturdays, as the alternative definition in Regulation Z, s. 1026.2(a)(6) does. That alternative is the same precise definition the rescission rule uses.

25 months, and what stops the count

Section 1002.12(b)(1) sets 25 months from the date the creditor notifies the applicant of action taken or of incompleteness, and the period covers the application itself, any monitoring information, anything else written or recorded that was used in evaluating it, copies of the notification and of the statement of specific reasons, and any written statement from the applicant alleging a violation. Business credit is 12 months rather than 25, with a 60-day floor for large business applicants under s. 1002.12(b)(5). Adverse action on an existing account is also 25 months, and a self-test under s. 1002.15 is 25 months from completion.

Section 1002.12(b)(4) overrides all of it. Once a creditor has actual notice that it is under investigation or subject to an enforcement proceeding by the Attorney General or an enforcement agency, or has been served with notice of an action under section 706 of ECOA, the records are held until the matter reaches final disposition, unless an agency or court allows an earlier date.

Elderly means age 62 or older

Section 1002.2(o) says elderly means age 62 or older, and three other rules turn on it. Age is a prohibited basis. A creditor may still use age as a predictive variable in an empirically derived, demonstrably and statistically sound credit scoring system, provided an elderly applicant’s age is not assigned a negative factor. And any system may consider an elderly applicant’s age where it favors that applicant (s. 1002.6(b)(2)).

None of these clocks moved on July 21, 2026. The amendments of that date reached ss. 1002.4(b), 1002.6(a), 1002.8 and 1002.15(d)(1)(ii), so the elderly definition in s. 1002.2(o), the age rules in s. 1002.6(b)(2), and every deadline in the table above read the same before and after it.

Sources

• Regulation B, 12 CFR Part 1002, ss. 1002.2(f), 1002.2(o), 1002.6(b)(2), 1002.9, 1002.12 and 1002.14
• CFPB ECOA valuations delivery factsheet, p. 2
• CFPB ECOA valuations rule compliance guide, January 2014, p. 14