On January 16, the CFPB filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, arguing that the FCRA disclosure requirements intended to allow consumers to correct inaccurate information applied to all information within a consumer report, including “header”

information such as a consumer’s name, telephone number, and social security number. In the underlying case, the plaintiff, arguing pro se, identified two errors in his credit report: an incorrect telephone number and a date for his current address that predated his move there. He requested the source of the incorrect phone number from the CRA, but the CRA failed to process his request. Previously, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had ruled that the FCRA’s requirement to disclose the source of information within a credit report did not apply to the plaintiff’s telephone number; the CFPB disagrees.

The CFPB argued the FCRA’s disclosure requirements provide that, upon a consumer’s request, a CRA must disclose “[a]ll information in the consumer’s file” including the sources of such information. The Bureau further noted that the Seventh Circuit had previously held that this disclosure requirement is applicable to all “information included in a consumer report” (italics omitted) and not merely all information that itself meets the definition of a “consumer report.”

The Bureau urged the court to recognize that the FCRA’s provisions cover header information.

In its brief, the CFPB emphasized ensuring the information furnished to CRAs and the consumer reports provided by the CRAs are attributed to the right person. If a consumer’s personal identifying information is inaccurate, that could lead to CRAs furnishing information to the wrong person.