Seventeen financial services trade groups are calling on the CFPB to abandon its plan to amend rules under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to vastly expand the scope of the FCRA by redefining what a “consumer report” is...more
2/11/2025
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Brokers ,
Data Privacy ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process
In today's episode, we discuss the CFPB’s recent proposed data broker rule—a proposal that would greatly expand the reach of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
On December 3, the CFPB issued a proposed rule promoted as one that...more
The CFPB has issued its final rule that will prohibit the inclusion of medical debts in credit reports lenders use to make credit decisions and that will also generally prohibit lenders from using medical debt information in...more
The CFPB intends to issue a proposed rule to address the impact of credit reporting relating to accounts of survivors of domestic violence, elder abuse, and other forms of financial abuse....more
12/17/2024
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Domestic Violence ,
Elder Abuse ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Vulnerable Victims
The CFPB has proposed a rule that it promotes as ensuring that Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) protections are applied to sensitive consumer information that the statute was designed to protect, including information sold by...more
A job applicant who claims he was not fully informed about adverse information that appeared on a background check is not entitled to relief under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the FCRA), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals...more
9/11/2024
/ Background Checks ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Standing ,
Statutory Violations
The National Consumer Law Center is asking the CFPB, by way of a petition, for rulemaking that is long on policy arguments but woefully short on legal support, as we note below, to define residential leases as “credit” under...more
8/28/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit ,
Credit Reports ,
Creditors ,
Data Collection ,
ECOA ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Services Industry ,
NCLC ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulation B ,
Regulation Z ,
Residential Leases ,
Small Business ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra on Thursday defended his agency’s proposed rule to prohibit the listing of medical debt on credit reports, contending that such debts are not a fair indication of a person’s financial health....more
8/12/2024
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Reports ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Healthcare ,
Lenders ,
Medical Debt ,
Proposed Rules
On May 16, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the CFPB’s funding mechanism does not violate the Appropriations Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This two-part episode repurposes a recent webinar. In Part II, we first...more
The steady drumbeat of steps during Rohit Chopra’s tenure as CFPB Director to call into question the reliability and predictability of medical debt information in credit underwriting reached a crescendo last week with the...more
6/18/2024
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Consumer Reports ,
Credit Reports ,
Creditors ,
Data Brokers ,
Debt Collection ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Healthcare ,
Medical Debt ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulation V ,
Regulatory Agenda
The CFPB has released the Spring 2024 edition of Supervisory Highlights. The report discusses CFPB examinations in connection with credit reporting and furnishing that were completed from April 1, 2023 through December 31,...more
On January 11, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued two new advisory opinions: Fair Credit Reporting; Background Screening and Fair Credit Reporting; File Disclosure. The advisory opinions are part of...more
1/17/2024
/ Background Screening Services ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Housing Market ,
Landlords ,
Rental Property ,
Tenants
The CFPB recently filed two amicus briefs, one in a First Circuit case involving the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the other, which was filed jointly with the Federal Trade Commission, in a Fourth Circuit...more
1/5/2024
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Debt ,
Debt Collectors ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
FDCPA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry
The CFPB announced last week that it has entered into a consent order with Commonwealth Financial Systems, Inc. (Commonwealth), a third-party debt collection company that collects past-due medical debts and furnishes...more
12/20/2023
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Debt Collection ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
FDCPA ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Medical Debt ,
Regulation V
The CFPB has released its Fall 2023 rulemaking agenda as part of the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The agenda’s preamble indicates that “[t]he Bureau reasonably anticipates having...more
12/8/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Cards ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Committee ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Late Fees ,
Mortgage Servicing Rules ,
Overdraft Fees ,
Popular ,
Regulation DD ,
Regulation Z ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
In September 2023, the CFPB announced that it was launching a Fair Credit Reporting Act rulemaking and issued an outline of the proposals it is considering in preparation for convening a Small Business Advisory Review Panel. ...more
12/5/2023
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Debt Collection ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SBREFA
The CFPB has issued its annual Fair Debt Collection Practices Act report covering the CFPB’s debt collection activities in 2022. The report incorporates information from the FTC’s most recent annual letter to the CFPB...more
11/21/2023
/ Annual Reports ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
Debtors ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
FDCPA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
No Surprises Act (NSA) ,
Regulatory Reform ,
UDAAP
Joining every other circuit to address the same issue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently ruled that a consumer does not have to prove actual damages to recover statutory damages for willful...more
11/17/2023
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Credit Reports ,
Damages ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
Experian ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FRCP 23 ,
Healthcare ,
Medical Debt ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Statutory Damages ,
Summary Judgment
The CFPB and FTC announced last week that they had entered into a settlement with Trans Union LLC (TU LLC) to resolve a lawsuit filed jointly in a Colorado federal district court by the agencies alleging that TU LLC and its...more
10/18/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Reports ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Screening Procedures ,
Settlement ,
Statutory Violations ,
TransUnion
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) have filed a joint amicus brief in which they urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse the decision of a New...more
10/10/2023
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Consumer Reports ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Fraud ,
Identity Theft
On September 21, 2023, with limited time to digest the comments received by September 11, 2023 from the request for information regarding medical payment products, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) started the...more
9/28/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Consumer Reports ,
Creditors ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Medical Debt ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Regulation V ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SBREFA
In remarks delivered yesterday at a roundtable convened by the White House on protecting Americans from harmful data broker practices, CFPB Director Chopra announced that the CFPB plans to propose a rule under the Fair Credit...more
A new FTC blog post titled “Tenant background check reports: Put it in writing” reminds landlords, property managers, and other housing providers of their obligation under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to provide notice of...more
8/1/2023
/ Adverse Action ,
Background Checks ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Housing Market ,
Landlords ,
Notice Requirements ,
Rental Applications ,
Rental Property ,
Screening Procedures ,
Tenants
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that because “there is no bright-line rule that only purely factual or transcription errors are actionable under the [Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)],” the FCRA...more
The CFPB announced at the end of last week that it had entered into a consent order with Phoenix Financial Services, LLC (Phoenix), a third-party debt collector that collects primarily past-due medical debts and furnishes...more
6/13/2023
/ Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
CRA ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
FDCPA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Medical Debt ,
Regulation V ,
Third-Party