WASHINGTON—NAFCU, along with several other organizations, has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court it to review a recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and to consider whether the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) preempts the state of Maine’s credit reporting laws.
According to the brief, the two state laws of concern are:
- A medical-debt provision that prohibits a consumer reporting agency from reporting medical debt on a consumer report “when the date of the first delinquency on the debt is less than 180 days prior to the date that the debt is reported,” or when the reporting agency has “reasonable evidence” that the debt has been “settled” or “paid in full.” It also requires the reporting agency to report medical debt “in the same manner as debt related to a consumer credit transaction” if the consumer is “making regular, scheduled period payments toward” that debt
- An economic-abuse provision, which bars reporting debts resulting from “economic abuse” if the consumer “provides documentation” of the economic abuse and a subsequent investigation confirms that abuse
The Argument
The amicus brief argues that both laws establish requirements concerning what information regarding certain debts may or may not be included in a consumer report, and as a result are preempted by the plain language of the FCRA.
“If the First Circuit’s approach stands, each State will be able to craft its own rules for the contents of credit reports, potentially creating a patchwork of at least 50 different types of credit reports,” wrote the organizations in the brief. This result would be “burdensome” for furnishers, like credit unions and banks, who would have to establish unique underwriting rules and processes for each state, the groups added.
The Bank Policy Institute, American Financial Services Association and American Bankers Association joined NAFCU in filing the brief.
Just in Time for the Holidays, CUToday’s Free Morning Headline Email is Now Double-Free!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.