Is Your Marketing Biased? Financial Regulators Are About To Start Checking

Federal regulators are planning to more aggressively probe the marketing of financial products for discrimination.

Let’s say you’re a lender seeking to market a new credit card. You decide to buy ads on MSNBC, a TV network whose viewership is around 70% white and 8% Hispanic (in contrast to the overall U.S. population, which is 59% white and 19% Hispanic). Alternatively, you decide to use an audience builder that results in the targeting of disproportionally middle-aged consumers to the exclusion of those above the age of 62.