Michael Christians Consulting, LLC

This month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published issue 32 of its Supervisory Highlights. The document focused on Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requirements specific to both consumer reporting agencies as well as financial institutions. A couple of highlights covering FCRA requirements for financial institutions that we have seen before: Under 12 CFR 1022.43, a financial institution that receives a direct dispute from a consumer regarding inaccurate information reported by the institution on the consumer's credit report must investigate and respond within 30 days. If the institution's investigation determines that inaccurate information was in fact reported about the consumer, the financial institution must promptly provide any information necessary to the consumer reporting agency to correct the error. However, the document also references a couple of other FCRA requirements that many financial institutions are probably less familiar with: Under 15 USC 1681s-2(a)(3), a financial institution investigating a direct dispute must do one of the following during the investigation - Suspend information reporting for the consumer until the investigation has been completed, or Include with any information reported to the consumer reporting agency a statement that the information is being disputed by the consumer. Under 15 USC 1681s-2(a)(6)(B), if a financial institution receives a notice of identity theft from a consumer, it may not report information about the consumer to the consumer reporting agency unless it knows or is subsequently informed by the consumer that the information is correct. You can access a copy of the Supervisory Highlights document here .