Final answer:
The purpose of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act is to prevent lenders from discriminating against certain groups based on factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, and, in some cases, age.
Step-by-step explanation:
The purpose of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act is to prevent lenders from discriminating against certain groups based on factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, and, in some cases, age. This law ended the common practice of lenders refusing to loan money to married women independently of their husbands or considering only the husband's income when extending credit to a family.