We use Baker Hill for our consumer loans. We judgmentally declined several customers last year based on debt to income. The adverse action letter did not include the credit bureau information because we did not use the credit bureau information in making our decision. We were told by our third party auditors that we should have included the credit bureau information because we used the monthly payments from the outstanding debt from the credit report. I was out of the Compliance area for a few years but lucky me was just given Compliance back!!! I don't understand and can't find anything in the regulation that would help. We are scheduled for an upcoming Compliance Exam and want to make sure that we are completing our letters correctly. If anyone can help with this I would appreciate it!

because we used the monthly payments from the outstanding debt from the credit report.

How can you argue that you did not deny the application based in whole or in part on information contained in the credit report?

Wholeheartedly agree with Randy.

I agree with Randy and your auditors. Using outstanding debt from a credit report to calculate the DTI is, in fact, using "in whole or in part on any information contained in a consumer report" as outlined in the FACT Act.

For a citation, you need to look at the FACT Act. Specifically, look at 1681m here: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title15-chapter41-subchapter3&edition=prelim