By Douglas Gillison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The top U.S. watchdog for consumers’ finances on Wednesday proposed narrowing key civil-rights-era anti-discrimination requirements for the financial industry, advancing President Donald Trump’s effort to curtail and eliminate policies he views as promoting racial favoritism.

In an official notice, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it was proposing to change existing rules to hold that the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a landmark statute preventing lenders from discriminating against borrowers, “does not authorize disparate-impact liability.”

Reuters had previously reported the CFPB planned to make the change. The CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DISPARATE IMPACT LIABILITY USED AGAINST DISCRIMINAT

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