Consumer Protection Increases and Compliance Changes with the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act

Recently we alerted our clients to a change in the FCRA disclosures we send to screening candidates. You can view our post about it here, with a screenshot of the updated language used for our clients. This change was among new rules were set forth by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act passed by congress in May 2018. Changes include the requirement to include new security freeze rights, and extended consumer account fraud alerts.

According to the New York Times, President Trump signed the Act into law on May 24^th allowing consumers to freeze their credit for free in the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Consumers can also unfreeze their credit without charge.

There were also updates to the requirements for Consumer Reporting Agencies. Now instead of 90 days, those agencies must include fraud alerts in the consumers file for a year.

If you’re a HireSafe customer, the QuickApp electronic report format already provides the necessary changes. The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection released the following model disclosures for use in determining whether your disclosures comply:

• The revised Summary of Consumer Rights
• The revised Summary of Consumer Rights in Spanish
• The revised Summary of Consumer Identity Theft Rights
• The revised Summary of Consumer Identity Theft Rights in Spanish
• The Bureau’s educational material for consumers on credit reports and credit scores.