The Federal Trade Commission today issued a staff report,
that compiles and updates the agency’s guidance on the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (FCRA), the 1970 law designed to protect the privacy of
credit report information and ensure that the information supplied by
credit reporting agencies is as accurate as possible. A credit report
contains information about a consumer’s personal and credit
characteristics, character, and general reputation and is used to make
credit, employment, insurance and other decisions.
"The employment screening rules and regulations continue to change and this will have an impact on our industry" says Bill Whitford, CEO of S2verify, LLC.
The new staff report, entitled “Forty Years of Experience with the
Fair Credit Reporting Act: An FTC Staff Report and Summary of
Interpretations,” provides a brief overview of the FTC’s role in
enforcing and interpreting the FCRA and includes a section-by-section
summary of the agency’s interpretations of the Act.
The FTC is also withdrawing the agency’s 1990 Commentary on the FCRA,
which has become partially obsolete since it was issued 21 years ago.
The 1990 Commentary was comprised of a series of FTC statements about
how it would enforce the various provisions of the FCRA. Since 1990, the
FRCA has been updated several times, most significantly by the Consumer
Credit Reporting Reform Act of 1996 and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, known as the FACT Act. Both updates expanded the provisions of the FCRA.
The new staff report deletes several FTC interpretations in the 1990
Commentary that have since been repealed, amended, or have become
obsolete or outdated. It also modifies some interpretations in the 1990
Commentary, and adds several interpretations reflecting changes that
Congress has made to the FCRA over the years, rules issued by the FTC
and other agencies under the FACT Act, statements in numerous staff
opinion letters, and the staff’s experience from significant enforcement
actions.
Recent legislation has transferred the authority to issue
interpretive guidance under the FCRA to the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFP. Withdrawing the 1990 Commentary now will ensure
that this obsolete document does not transfer to the CFPB.
The Commission vote approving the staff report on the FCRA and withdrawing the 1990 Commentary was 5-0. The report and Federal Register notice
can be found on the FTC’s website and as links to this press release.
More information for consumers about the FRCA can be found here.
