The Background Check Authority ®
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
A federal judge in Texas has ordered a company located in the state that compiles public records to turn over information requested in a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as part of a nonpublic investigation to determine whether consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) are violating the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
Three major national credit reporting agencies in the United States – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – will implement enhanced public record data standards for consumer credit reports beginning on July 1, 2017, according to a statement from the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA). Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered one of the nation’s three largest credit reporting agencies, Experian, to pay a civil penalty of $3 million for deceiving consumers about the use of credit scores it sold to them, according to a report on the CFPB website. Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released a special report that details the problems in the credit reporting industry that the CFPB has uncovered and corrected through oversight work and outlines actions the CFPB has taken to address these problems such as fixing data accuracy at credit reporting companies, repairing the broken dispute process, and cleaning up information being reported. Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released the Monthly Complaint Report for February 2017 that highlights consumer complaints about credit reports and shows how consumers continue to report struggling to resolve errors on their credit reports. The report is at http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201702_cfpb_Monthly-Complaint-Report.pdf. Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered TransUnion and Equifax, Inc. to pay a total of more than $17.6 million in restitution to consumers, along with fines totaling $5.5 million to the CFPB, for deceiving consumers about the usefulness and actual cost of credit scores they sold to consumers, according to a news story on the CFPB website. Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
With data breaches front page news in 2016, industries dealing with sensitive and confidential information – especially in the financial sector – know ensuring data security from third party service providers is mission critical. The fact that businesses including banks and financial institutions will seek stronger security measures such as SSAE 16 Service Organization Control (SOC) 2® reports and accreditation from National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) from screening providers is Trend Number 3 in the Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) 10th annual ‘ESR Top Ten Background Check Trends’ for 2017. Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled the structure of an independent agency established by Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – is unconstitutional and that the current CFPB Director “enjoys more unilateral authority than any other officer in any of the three branches of the U.S. Government, other than the President.” Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has fined Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. $100 million – the largest penalty the CFPB ever imposed – as part of a total fine of $185 million “for the widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts,” according to a CFPB press release. Continue reading
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Supervisory Highlights for Summer 2016 publication features some issues related to adverse action notices that the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires users of background check reports to send to subjects of those reports when any adverse (i.e. negative) action is taken against them based on information contained in the background check report. Continue reading
