The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a final rule updating, among other things, the model form for the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Summary of Consumer Rights and information that must be included in adverse action notices under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). Specifically, the CFPB is correcting the contact information in the Summary of Consumer Rights model form for multiple federal agencies (including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)), updating references to obsolete business types, and making other technical corrections. For ECOA, the Bureau is amending appendix A, which contains federal agency contact information that creditors must include in ECOA adverse action notices, and correcting its own contact information in appendix D.
As background, the Summary of Consumer Rights explains certain consumer rights available under the FCRA. Consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) must provide the Summary of Consumer Rights: (a) with each written disclosure from the CRA to a consumer (15 U.S.C. § 1681g(c)(2)(A)); and (b) with, or prior to providing, a consumer report for employment purposes (15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(1)(B)). A user must provide the Summary of Consumer Rights: (a) with the required disclosure prior to procuring an investigative consumer report (15 U.S.C. § 1681d(a)(1)); and (b) with pre-adverse action notices for employment purposes (15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(3)).
The updated model form is available on the CFPB website in English and Spanish.
As for ECOA, § 1002.9(b)(1) provides model language that satisfies certain disclosure requirements of 12 CFR 1002.9(a)(2) relating to adverse action notices. These notices must include federal agency contact information located in appendix A to Regulation B. The Bureau is revising appendix A to update agency contact information, including the OCC, FDIC, and the Federal Trade Commission. Additionally, appendix D to § 1002 sets forth the process by which entities may request official Bureau interpretations of Regulation B. The CFPB is amending paragraph 2 in appendix D to correct the zip code for the Bureau and to replace the reference to the Division of Research, Markets, and Regulations with a reference to the new, expanded Division of Research, Monitoring, and Regulations.
The rule becomes effective April 19, 2023, but the mandatory compliance date for the amendments to the FCRA Summary of Consumer Rights is March 20, 2024. As a result, CRAs, employers and creditors who are using the model forms and language have one year to update their forms and language.