Final answer:
RESPA, a consumer protection law, mandates that banks cannot discriminate when providing home loans and must disclose loan distribution data publicly. The Fed enforces these provisions to ensure compliance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question revolves around the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), which is a consumer protection statute first enacted in 1974. RESPA provides consumers with improved disclosures of settlement costs and eliminates abusive practices, such as kickbacks or referral fees that unnecessarily increase the costs of certain settlement services. One of the key aspects regulated by RESPA is the prohibition of discriminatory lending practices by banks. This includes a ban on discrimination based on age, race, sex, or marital status when providing loans for buying houses.
In addition to banning discrimination, RESPA mandates that banks must publicly disclose information about the loans they offer for home purchases and how those loans are dispensed geographically, as well as according to the sex and race of loan applicants. The enforcement of RESPA is one of the roles of the Federal Reserve (the Fed), which ensures that banks adhere to the variety of consumer protection laws in place.