Trulieve maintains that “the mere receipt and subsequent transmission of information does not fall within the competence of the FCRA”. Trulieve cites the eleventh circuit precedent, which narrowly defines consumer intelligence agencies and involves “a function that involves more than receiving and retransmitting information.” In der Rechtssache Smith v. First Nat. Bank of Atlanta, 837 F.2d 1575, 1579 (11th Cir. 1988), the court narrowly defined consumer reporting agencies as those that “compile or evaluate consumer credit information.” Therefore, Trulieve contends that when Personal Security Concepts simply received the public records from government agencies and transmitted all the documents to Trulieve in a raw, unedited form, it did not act as a consumer reporting agency because it “did not evaluate, recompile, aggregate, compile, partition, or otherwise customize the public information.” Personal Security Concepts does not maintain a database of this information, nor does it modify the reports in any way before they are transmitted to Trulieve. An employer`s obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) are triggered when they receive a “consumer report” from a “consumer review agency” to be used in an employment decision. A federal court in Florida`s Middle District will rule on a summary decision request clarifying whether a company that submits unchanged public documents to a potential employer is a “consumer reporting agency.” While the majority vote in Zabriskie means that Fannie Mae`s licensing of UA does not make it a consumer reporting agency for FCRA purposes, the underlying justification for Zabriskie`s dissent may provide a roadmap for future litigants who wish to establish a company`s status as a consumer reporting agency, in particular if a company provides or uses information in a way that: which may allow lenders to make underwriting decisions based on specific consumer credit. Information. A divided committee in the Ninth District recently issued a decision in Zabriskie v. Federal National Mortgage Association in which the court considered whether Fannie Mae`s use of proprietary underwriting software meant that she was classified as a consumer rating agency under the Federal Credit Reporting Act (the “FCRA”), which, among other things, governs the conduct of certain consumer review agencies. The majority and dissent in the ninth circle conducted a detailed analysis of the criteria for determining what constitutes a consumer rating agency under the FCRA, and each serves as a useful guide for lenders dealing with mortgages, credit services or consumer credit reports to avoid accidental designation and potential non-compliance. The dissenting opinion can also provide a blueprint for future litigants who wish to challenge a company`s conduct on the basis of alleged FCRA violations.
Credit reports affect how U.S. citizens access credit, employment, and insurance. Because of the importance of these reports, the activities of rating agencies are regulated by the government through the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FCRA, and the Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act, FACTA. These regulators have created restrictions on the operation of reporting agents. This includes submitting a free credit report each year. There are other smaller rating agencies, including Telecheck, Tenant Data Services, Teletrak, LexisNexis, Insurance Services Office, and Medical Information Bureau. Every year, a consumer is entitled to a free credit report on annualcreditreport.com. In the Zabriskie case, Fannie Mae was sued by a consumer for fcra violations based on alleged inaccuracies of credit information in reports created by Fannie Mae`s proprietary underwriting software, called Desktop Underwriter (“DU”).
Fannie Mae grants DU licenses to lenders, and the software allows lenders to create reports based on consumer information called DU results, indicating whether a particular loan is eligible to purchase Fannie Mae on the secondary market. Credit reporting agencies can obtain a wide range of information and data contained in a credit report. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are the three largest credit bureaus in the United States. They are known to obtain standard credit information and provide comprehensive credit reports on a borrower`s basic credit history. They set industry standards for reporting and assessment methods. 1996 – Subsection (d). Hrsg. L. 104–208, § 2402(e), eingefügte Unterabs. Header, designation of existing provisions as paragraph (1) and title inserted, renamed to cls.
(1) to (3) as a paragraph. (A) to (C) or added para. 2) and deleted at the end: “The term does not include (A) reports containing only information about transactions or experiences between the consumer and the person making the report; (B) any approval or approval of a particular credit extension, directly or indirectly, by the issuer of a credit card or similar device; or (C) any report in which a person to whom a third party has requested to grant a particular credit extension, directly or indirectly, to a consumer, communicates its decision on such a request if the third party informs the consumer of the name and address of the person to whom the request was made and that person makes the disclosures to the consumer required under section 1681m of this Title. “Consumer information agencies are organisations that prepare credit reports.