Credit Reports

Subscribe to Credit Reports via RSS

Politico has reported that on July 19, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on President Trump’s nomination of Kathy Kraninger to serve as CFPB Director.  While we find this surprising, we continue to believe that she will not be confirmed by the full Senate until after the mid-term elections.… Continue Reading

The CFPB announced that it has entered into a consent order with Security Group Inc. and its subsidiaries (Security Group) to settle an administrative enforcement action that charged the companies with having engaged in unlawful debt collection and credit reporting practices.  The consent order requires Security Group to pay a civil money penalty of $5 million.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Senate on March 14 passed S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (the Act), by a vote of 67 to 31.  Although the Act would not make the sweeping changes to the Dodd-Frank Act found in the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017 (CHOICE Act), it, nevertheless, would provide financial institutions welcome relief from a number of specific Dodd-Frank provisions.… Continue Reading

In a new report on consumer credit trends, the CFPB looks at how recent changes to the public record data standards used by the “Big 3” consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) have affected consumers’ credit reports and  credit scores.  The data used in the report comes from the CFPB’s Consumer Credit Panel, which the report describes as “a longitudinal, nationally-representative sample of approximately five million de-identified credit records maintained by one of the three nationwide [CRAs].”… Continue Reading

This week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a press release directing the New York Department of State to issue a new regulation impacting consumer reporting agencies.  The new regulation was adopted on an emergency basis and went into immediate effect in order to protect consumers from identity theft and other potential economic harms that may arise following a data breach.… Continue Reading

Last week, members of the Senate Banking Committee announced that they had reached bipartisan agreement on “legislative proposals to improve our nation’s financial regulatory framework and promote economic growth.”  Following the announcement, Committee members released a draft of a bill (S. 2155), the “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.” … Continue Reading

The CFPB has published the following notices in today’s Federal Register:

  • Request for Information. Through the RFI, the CFPB seeks to learn more about consumers’ experience with access to free credit scores and the experience of companies and nonprofit credit and financial counseling providers offering their customers and the general public such access. 
… Continue Reading

An Assistant Illinois Attorney General, in a letter sent to Experian’s CEO on behalf of the Illinois AG and the AGs of 35 other states and the District of Columbia, has asked Experian not to charge any credit freeze-related fees.

In the letter, which references the recent Equifax data breach, the Assistant Illinois AG notes that seven states currently prohibit consumer reporting agencies from charging fees to place a credit freeze and at least two others have introduced legislation that would require CRAs to offer free credit freezes.… Continue Reading

The cities of Chicago and San Francisco and the Massachusetts Attorney General have filed the first enforcement actions against Equifax following the announcement of a data breach affecting an estimated 143 million consumers.  Equifax announced the data breach on September 7, 2017, after hackers allegedly exploited a vulnerability in open-source software used by Equifax to create its online consumer dispute portal.… Continue Reading

Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a press release directing the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) to impose new rules on consumer reporting agencies (“CRAs”).  The proposed regulation would subject CRAs that issue consumer reports (as defined in a manner similar to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act) about consumers located in New York to new requirements, including:

  • Annual registration with NYDFS – such registration must identify officers and/or directors that are responsible for the CRAs’ compliance with the new regulation;
  • Annual, and in some cases quarterly, information reporting requirements to NYDFS;
  • NYDFS examinations to be conducted as often as NYDFS considers “necessary”;
  • Prohibitions against various activities, such as including inaccurate information in a consumer report or engaging in any unfair, deceptive, abusive, and/or predatory acts or practices;
  • Communicating with consumers’ authorized representatives; and
  • Compliance with the newly issued NYDFS cybersecurity regulation (see Ballard alert).
… Continue Reading