15 U.S.C. § 1681s–2 — Responsibilities of furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies

(a) Duty to provide accurate information. (1) A person^* may not give a reporting agency information about a consumer^* if the person knows, or has specific facts giving a reasonable person substantial doubt, that it is inaccurate. This does not require the person to use a special notice address, but if the person clearly and prominently gives the consumer an address for accuracy notices, the person is not subject to the actual-knowledge rule in subparagraph (A). The person also may not give the information if the consumer notified the person at that address that specific information was inaccurate and the information really is inaccurate. (D) “Reasonable cause to believe that the information is inaccurate” means specific knowledge other than the consumer’s allegations alone that would give a reasonable person substantial doubts about accuracy. (E) A consumer may ask a financial institution to remove a reported default on a “private education loan” if the institution chooses a rehabilitation program, the consumer makes the required consecutive on-time monthly payments showing renewed ability and willingness to repay, and the consumer successfully completes the program. A federally supervised institution must seek written approval of the program’s terms from the appropriate Federal banking agency, which must give feedback within 120 days. The consumer may use this benefit only once per loan. The institution is not required to offer a program or remove a default except as stated here. “Appropriate Federal banking agency” has the meaning given in section 1813 of title 12, and “private education loan” has the meaning given in section 1650(a) of this title. (F) During the defined COVID–19 covered period, an “accommodation” includes deferring payments, making a partial payment, forbearance of delinquent amounts, modifying a loan or contract, or other assistance for a consumer affected by COVID–19. The covered period began January 31, 2020, and ended on the later of 120 days after March 27, 2020, or 120 days after the President’s March 13, 2020 national-emergency declaration ended. If a furnisher made an accommodation on one or more payments and the consumer paid, or was not required to pay, under it, the furnisher must report the account as current. If it was delinquent before the accommodation, the furnisher must keep reporting it as delinquent while the accommodation lasts, and report it as current if the consumer brings it current during that time. These rules do not apply after the account has been charged off. (2) A person that regularly gives agencies information about its transactions or experiences with consumers must promptly correct information it decides is incomplete or inaccurate, give the agency the needed corrections or additions, and stop giving information that remains incomplete or inaccurate. (3) If a consumer disputes information with the person who supplied it, the person may not give it to an agency without noting that it is disputed. (4) A person that regularly reports a consumer’s credit account must report the consumer’s voluntary closure of the account during the period it is closed. (5) A person reporting a delinquent account placed for collection, charged to profit or loss, or treated similarly must, within 90 days, report the month and year when the delinquency began immediately before that action. If the consumer does not dispute the information, this duty is met by using the creditor’s previously reported date; by using a date obtained through reasonable procedures from the creditor or another reliable source when no date was previously reported; or, if the date cannot reasonably be obtained, by using reasonable procedures to report a date before the collection, charge-off, or similar action. (6) A furnisher must have reasonable procedures to respond to agency notices about identity-theft information and prevent blocked information from being reported again. If a consumer gives the furnisher an identity-theft report at the specified address stating that information purporting to concern the consumer resulted from identity theft, the furnisher may not report it unless the furnisher later knows, or the consumer tells the furnisher, that it is correct. (7) A financial institution that extends credit and regularly reports negative information to a nationwide reporting agency must give the customer written notice of that report before or within 30 days after reporting it. After one notice, it may report more negative information about the same transaction, credit extension, account, or customer without another notice. A notice given before reporting cannot be part of the initial disclosures under section 1637(a). The notice may accompany a default notice, bill, or other material, but must be clear and prominent. The Bureau must create a model notice of no more than 30 words; use of it is optional, and use of it, including rearranging its format, is compliance. Giving notice does not require the institution to report negative information. An institution is not liable for failing these duties if it had reasonable compliance policies and procedures or reasonably believed law barred contacting the consumer. “Negative information” means information about delinquencies, late payments, insolvency, or any kind of default. “Customer” and “financial institution” have the meanings in section 6809. (8) The Bureau, consulting the listed Federal agencies, must issue regulations identifying when a furnisher must investigate a dispute made directly by a consumer. The agencies must weigh consumer benefits and costs to furnishers and the reporting system, effects on report accuracy and integrity, whether direct contact would resolve the dispute fastest, and effects if credit-repair organizations could evade subparagraph (G). The rules apply subparagraphs (D) through (G) in the circumstances identified. The consumer’s direct notice must identify the exact information disputed, explain the basis, and include documentation the furnisher requires. The furnisher must investigate, review the consumer’s relevant information, report the result before the period in section 1681i(a)(1) expires, and promptly correct every agency’s records if the information was inaccurate. This paragraph does not apply when the furnisher reasonably finds the dispute frivolous or irrelevant, including because the consumer supplied too little information or submitted essentially the same dispute already handled. The furnisher must notify the consumer within five business days, by mail or an authorized other method, stating the reasons and identifying needed information. It also does not apply to a dispute submitted by, prepared for the consumer by, or put on a form supplied by a credit-repair organization or an entity that would qualify but for section 1679a(3)(B)(i). (9) A person whose main business is medical services, products, or devices, or that person’s agent or assignee, is a medical-information furnisher when reporting about a consumer and must notify the agency of that status. (b) After an agency gives a furnisher notice under section 1681i(a)(2) of a dispute, the furnisher must investigate, review all relevant information from the agency, report the investigation’s result, and, if the information is incomplete or inaccurate, report the result to every nationwide agency to which it supplied the information. If the information is inaccurate, incomplete, or cannot be verified, the furnisher must promptly modify it, delete it, or permanently block its reporting, as appropriate. It must finish these steps before the agency’s deadline under section 1681i(a)(1). (c) Except for the stated section 1681s exception, sections 1681n and 1681o do not apply to violations of subsection (a), subsection (e), or subsection (e) of section 1681m. This does not limit, expand, or otherwise affect liability under those sections for violations of subsection (b). (d) The provisions described in subsection (c), other than that exception, are enforced only under section 1681s by the Federal and State^* officials listed there. (e) For entities subject to the Bureau’s enforcement authority, the Bureau must maintain accuracy-and-integrity guidelines for furnishers and update them as needed, and require reasonable policies and procedures to apply them. The guidelines must identify patterns, practices, and activities that can harm accuracy or integrity; review methods, including technology, used to supply information; determine whether furnishers maintain and enforce accuracy policies; and examine their reinvestigation and correction processes.