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| Financial Services
October 28 2013

CFPB Issues Warning on Furnisher 's Duty to Investigate Disputes

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued a bulletin to companies that furnish information to CRAs reminding them of their obligation under the FCRA to investigate consumer disputes forwarded by a CRA and ""review all relevant information"" relating to the dispute. In the bulletin, the CFPB warns that it will take appropriate supervisory and enforcement actions to address furnisher violations of the FCRA or other federal consumer financial laws, including requiring restitution to harmed consumers. The CFPB expects furnishers to have reasonable systems and technologies in place to handle notices of disputes received from CRAs and information regarding disputes, including documentation forwarded by CRAs. The CFPB takes the position that a furnisher 's FCRA duty to review ""all relevant information"" relating to a dispute requires the furnisher to review and consider all of its own information relating to a dispute as well as all documents that a CRA includes with a notice of dispute or transmits during the furnisher 's investigation. In the bulletin, the CFPB outlines what it generally expects furnishers to do to comply with the FCRA 's requirements. Furnishers not currently meeting the CFPB 's expectations are advised to ""take immediate steps"" to comply."