Four bills dealing with credit reporting were passed last Thursday by the House Financial Services Committee.  While there has been bipartisan support for credit reporting reform, none of the bills received any Republican votes.

The bills, which are listed below, would make various amendments to the FCRA, including those described below:

  • The “Improving Credit Reporting for All Consumers Act” would impose new requirements for conducting reinvestigations of consumer disputes and related standards, require consumer reporting agencies to create a webpage providing information about consumer dispute rights, require furnishers to retain records necessary to substantiate the accuracy and completeness of furnished information, create a right for consumers to appeal the results of a reinvestigation, prohibit automatic renewals of consumer reporting and credit scoring products and services, and require a credit scoring model to treat multiple inquiries for a credit report or credit score made in connection with certain consumer credit products within a 120-period as a single inquiry.
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There was movement last week on two California bills that we have been tracking closely and which could substantially alter the lending and brokering landscape under the California Financing Law (“CFL”).

On July 9th, AB-539, which proposes to cap interest rates at 36% plus the federal funds rate on CFL loans of $2,500 to $10,000, passed the Senate Committee on Judiciary and was sent to the Appropriations Committee where we believe the bill will be heard around the end of August.… Continue Reading

The Office of Inspector General for the CFPB (and the Fed) recently issued a report on its evaluation of the Office of Consumer Response’s sharing of complaint data within the CFPB.

As background, the report describes the tools available to Bureau users of complaint data (complaint-sharing tools) to search such data, identify issues, and summarize data, and also describes Consumer Response’s process for approving access to these tools.… Continue Reading

Effective July 28, debt collectors licensed in Washington will be subject to new requirements when collecting medical debt.

Substitute House Bill 1531, signed into law by Washington Governor Jay Inslee on April 30, amended the state’s debt collection law that requires debt collectors to be licensed by adding certain substantive requirements along with a definition of “medical debt.” … Continue Reading

On June 27 the Senate passed the Gold Star Spouses and Spouses of Injured Servicemembers Leasing Relief Expansion Act as part of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (see Sec. 6007). If it becomes law, the bill would amend the SCRA to allow spouses of servicemembers killed or injured during service to terminate certain types of leases.… Continue Reading

The CFPB announced that it has settled the lawsuit it filed in a California federal district court against Freedom Debt Relief (FDR) and its CEO for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).  The CFPB’s press release describes FDR as “the nation’s largest debt-settlement services provider.” … Continue Reading

24 state attorneys general, the D.C. attorney general, and the Executive Director of the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection have sent a joint comment letter to the CFPB urging it not to make any changes to the Regulation E rule that limits the ability of financial institutions to charge overdraft fees for paying ATM and one-time debit card transactions that overdraw a consumer’s account (Overdraft Rule). … Continue Reading

In this podcast, we look at the changes to the FDCPA validation notice that the CFPB’s proposed debt collection rules would make and discuss compliance challenges and other issues raised by the changes, including the requirement to itemize the debt, the dispute “tear-off” form, the option to provide Spanish and other foreign language translations of the notice, and electronic delivery of the notice.… Continue Reading

In an interesting twist, the FHFA has informed the Fifth Circuit in Collins v. Mnuchin, that despite having previously advised the en banc court that it would not defend the FHFA’s constitutionality, it has reconsidered its position under the leadership of its new Director and will take the position going forward that the agency’s structure is constitutional. … Continue Reading

The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Growth Act) enacted last year includes a provision to protect veterans from loan churning by providing, among other requirements, that a loan to a veteran that refinances an existing loan is not eligible for guaranty by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) until the date that is the later of (1) the date that is 210 days after the date that the first monthly payment is made on the existing loan and (2) the date on which the sixth monthly payment is made on the existing loan.… Continue Reading