CFPB Issues Opinion on FCRA Permissible Purpose

Permissible Purposes - The CFPB issued an Advisory Opinion to highlight the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s permissible purpose requirements. This Advisory Opinion explains that the FCRA’s permissible purpose requirements are consumer specific. It highlights that, under certain permissible purpose provisions, a consumer reporting agency may not provide a consumer report to a user unless it has reason to believe that all of the consumer report information it includes pertains to the consumer who is the subject of the user’s request. It also discusses certain industry practices, such as poor matching procedures and disclaimers, as they relate to these FCRA requirements. The Advisory Opinion also explains that the FCRA strictly prohibits a person who uses or obtains a consumer report from doing so without a permissible purpose.

HUD Charges RV Resort with Gender Discrimination

Gender Discrimination - HUD announced that it is charging an RV Resort in Davenport, Florida, with discriminating against a former tenant, who is a transgender woman, because of her gender identity. HUD’s Charge of Discrimination resulted from a complaint that the tenant filed with HUD, which alleges that the owner of the resort gave the tenant a letter stating that he was aware she was transitioning and telling her to act as a man, talk as a man, and dress as a man to avoid trouble.

Interagency Guidance released on Risk Based Due Diligence

Customer Due Diligence – Along with the FDIC, Federal Reserve, NCUA, OCC, FinCEN issued a joint statement reminding institutions of the risk-based approach to assessing customer relationships and conducting customer due diligence. The Agencies are reinforcing a longstanding position that no customer type presents a single level of uniform risk, or a particular risk profile related to money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illicit financial activity. Institutions must apply a risk-based approach to CDD, including when developing the risk profiles of their customers. Specifically, institutions must adopt appropriate risk-based procedures for conducting ongoing CDD that, among other things, enable institutions to: (i) understand the nature and purpose of customer relationships for the purpose of developing a customer risk profile, and (ii) conduct ongoing monitoring to identify and report suspicious transactions and, on a risk basis, to maintain and update customer information.