Recent developments indicate that credit reporting concerns are likely to be at the forefront of the CFPB’s agenda in the coming months. Last month, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra spoke before the House Committee on Financial Services and discussed several key topics, including credit reporting issues. Earlier this month, the CFPB published a report called “Disputes on Consumer Credit Reports” that discusses trends in consumer credit disputes and how such disputes are resolved. Shortly after the CFPB published its report, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to Director Chopra, urging the CFPB to address credit reporting issues within the industry. This blog post highlights some of the key points in Director Chopra’s testimony, the CFPB report, and Senate Democrats’ letter to Director Chopra.
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Credit reporting
Permissible Purpose & the FCRA – CFPB Reaches Settlement For Use of Consumer Reports to Market Debt Settlement Services
On May 14, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) filed a proposed stipulated final judgment and order (the “Order”) against Chou Team Realty, LLC (“Monster Loans”) and several related individuals and entities to resolve alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”), and the prohibition on unfair, deceptive,…
Mortgage Servicing in the Pandemic—What Servicers Need to Know
Federal regulators and Congress continue to release new guidance and requirements to assist residential mortgage loan borrowers facing economic hardships due to the pandemic. But in light of the anticipated volume of requests and associated burden on servicers, they also are offering some regulatory relief. This alert contains a summary of relevant mortgage servicing requirements,…
Mulvaney’s Bureau Issues Second Enforcement Action: Debt Collectors Beware?
Nearly seven months into Mick Mulvaney’s tenure as Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau), the agency issued just its second enforcement action under his leadership on June 13, 2018. You may have missed it, as the press release was not pushed out through the Bureau’s email notifications and the cursory press release may have flown under your radar. The settlement is with a parent company and its subsidiaries that originated, provided, purchased, serviced, and collected on high-cost, short-term secured and unsecured consumer loans. The consent order contains allegations of violations of the prohibition on unfair practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act and of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and requires the respondents to pay a $5 million civil money penalty. Notably, the consent order does not require any consumer redress, despite Mr. Mulvaney’s stated intent to only pursue cases with “quantifiable and unavoidable” harm to consumers.
Debt Collection Practices
The Bureau alleges that respondents engaged in unfair in-person debt collection practices, including discussing debts in public, leaving the respondents’ “field cards” (presumably identifying the respondents) with third parties (including the consumers’ children and neighbors), and visiting consumers’ places of employment. The Bureau alleges that these practices were unfair because they caused substantial injury such as humiliation, inconvenience, and reputational damage; consumers could not reasonably avoid the harm because consumers were not informed of whether and when such visits would occur and could not stop respondents from engaging in the visits; and any potential benefit in the form of recoveries were outweighed by the substantial injury to consumers. The consent order notes that respondent attempted 12 million in-person visits to more than 1.3 million consumers over a five-year period, and requires respondents to cease in-person collection visits at consumers’ homes, places of employment, and public places.
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Time for Some Spring (Credit Reporting) Cleaning
In March 2017, the CFPB issued a special edition of its Supervisory Highlights addressing consumer reporting from the perspective of consumer reporting companies (“CRCs”) (commonly referred to as credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies) and furnishers. This follows the CFPB’s February 2017 Monthly Complaint Report, which focused on complaints related to credit reporting. These publications, along with recent statements by Director Robert Cordray, suggest that the CFPB will be placing additional supervisory focus on credit reporting for both CRCs and furnishers of consumer information.
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