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The Eighth Circuit reiterated in a decision last month that trial courts must distinguish between FCRA plaintiffs who have suffered concrete harm and plaintiffs who merely seek to collect statutorily allowed damages as a way to ensure compliance with the law.  Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, the former have Article III standing…

In a rare development, a California state court of appeals has opined on the requirements for obtaining authorization for background checks pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

In Hebert v. Barnes & Noble, Inc., the plaintiff filed a putative class action against retailer Barnes & Noble, contending it willfully violated the FCRA by…

To implement recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a rule intended to assist survivors of trafficking. The rule would establish a way for survivors to submit documentation to consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) identifying any “adverse item of information” about the consumer resulting from human…

Maryland has enacted legislation that revises the rules of determining creditworthiness.  On May 30, 2021, Maryland Governor Lawrence J. Hogan (R) signed HB1213 into law, which adds to Maryland Code Ann. Financial Institutions (FI) § 1-212.

Effective October 1, 2021, certain financial institutions (banking institutions, credit unions, savings and loan associations, community development financial institutions,…

On August 23, 2021, the CFPB filed its sixth status report in the lawsuit alleging wrongful delay by the CFPB in adopting regulations to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require financial institutions to collect and report certain data in connection…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has held that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act does not preempt New Jersey’s common-law doctrine of necessaries whereby a spouse is jointly liable for necessary expenses incurred by the other spouse.  As a result, the plaintiff could not rely on preemption as the basis for her …

As we recently reported, the CFPB released new guidance on January 13, 2021, in an effort to give industry participants more concrete guidance about how to tackle the sometimes-daunting issue of serving customers in non-English languages.  Director Kraninger announced the guidance in a blog post of her own, and reached out with telephone calls…

The CFPB and the Arkansas Attorney General announced that they filed a proposed stipulated judgment and order settling their Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA) claims against Alder Holdings, LLC, a home-alarm company that extends closed-end credit to its customers by providing them the right to defer payment…

The Supreme Court has granted certiorari to review a $40 million class action trial judgment for statutory and punitive damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and its forthcoming decision later this Term will likely be the Supreme Court’s most important ruling in the consumer financial services space since its 2016 ruling in Spokeo, Inc.

Since early June 2020 when cries for racial justice resulted in a period of social unrest in the U.S., federal and state financial institution regulators have taken meaningful, proactive steps to acknowledge financial inequality issues, reach out to traditionally underserved populations to expand access to credit, and further protect consumers from discrimination. While it remains…