Congress Passes FCRA Bill

The House and the Senate have passed a final version of the Fair Credit Reporting Act bill that will expand the use of adverse-action notices.The final bill, crafted in a House/Senate conference committee, permanently extends FCRA and provides consumers with free access to credit reports. Other provisions in the bill are designed to improve the accuracy of credit reports and address the growing problem of identity theft. The measure also requires adverse-action notices in cases where borrowers are not offered the lender's usual interest rate or terms because of their credit score. The lawmakers tried to provide lenders with greater clarity about the timing of these notices. But industry lobbyists are complaining that the legislative language is still too vague and it's up to Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve Board to sort out when a lender should give a notice to a borrower. Nevertheless, lender groups support the FCRA bill because it pre-empts states from enacting tougher privacy and credit reporting laws.