CFPB Issues FCRA Compliance Guidance

CFPB FCRA

On September 4, the CFPB issued Bulletin 2013-09, which addresses a furnisher’s obligations in connection with a dispute forwarded to it by a consumer reporting agency (CRA). The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) generally requires a CRA to notify and provide information to a furnisher when a consumer disputes information provided by the furnisher to the CRA. In turn, the furnisher must conduct an investigation, review all relevant information, and respond appropriately. The CFPB’s guidance provides that compliance with the FCRA requires the furnisher to: (i) maintain a system reasonably capable of receiving from CRAs information regarding disputes, including supporting documentation; (ii) conduct an investigation of the disputed information, including information forwarded by the CRA and the furnisher’s own information with respect to the dispute; (iii) report the results of the investigation to the CRA that sent the dispute; (iv) provide corrected information to every nationwide CRA that received the information if the information is inaccurate or incomplete; and (v) modify or delete the disputed information, or permanently block the reporting of the information if the information is incomplete or inaccurate, or cannot be verified. Furnishers should consider whether these processes need to be integrated into their Compliance Management Systems.