Banks and other lenders need to follow fair lending laws when canceling loans or changing their terms and not just during the application process, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.

Some lenders have been following the Equal Credit Opportunity Act only when issuing loans, the bureau said in a Monday advisory opinion. But the CFPB interprets Regulation B, the ECOA’s implementing rule, as applying to “approval, denial, renewal, continuation, or revocation of any open-end consumer credit account.”

“Today’s advisory opinion and accompanying analysis makes clear that anti-discrimination protections do not vanish once a customer obtains a loan,” CFPB Director …