LexisNexis ( July 26, 2018, 10:28 AM EDT) -- On May 21, 2018, President Trump signed Congressional Resolution S.J. Res. 57 (the “Congressional Resolution”) which repealed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s bulletin of March 21, 2013, which had purported to find that indirect auto lenders were “creditors” under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1691 et seq. (“ECOA”). In so doing, the Congressional Resolution, with the full backing of the CFPB, narrowed the potential application of the ECOA to indirect auto lending, presumably to protect indirect auto lenders from claims of disparate impact discrimination under ECOA. This action represents an unmistakable step toward limiting the use of disparate impact claims as an avenue for bringing claims of discrimination under the ECOA. What effect it will have on indirect auto lenders, and lenders generally, remains to be seen....