When a married couple applies for a mortgage loan jointly and they have a joint credit report, is it acceptable to send a joint adverse action notice? Both names would be listed on the notice and the envelope would be addressed to both applicants.
On the other hand.....
If the applicants are unmarried and have separate credit reports but live at the same address would we have to send a separate notice to each borrower?

12 CFR 202.9(f) states: "Multiple appllicants. When an applicaton involves more thanone applicant, notification need only be given to one of them, but must be given to the primary applicant where one is readily apparent."

Just send one adverse action notice to the primary applicant. They don't have to be married or living at the same address.

Sending one notice would satisfy Reg B but what about FCRA? If your adverse action notice has both Reg B and FCRA disclosures you will need to send notices to each applicant. FCRA requires that each applicant be given notification.

ECOA, Reg B, states that "If there are two or more applicants, the creditor nee only notify one of the applicants (primary) of the denial who whould have been primarily liable on the credit" However, the FCRA states that if a consumer reporting agency or an outside source had any bearing on the reason to deny, the credit bureau and/or outside source must be listed and the form sent to ALL applicants. FCRA is what requires that you send the notice to all parties and not Reg B.

To expand on Janet's point, this doesn't mean necessarily that the same AAN goes to each. Because of the credit information they may need to be different notices.

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

I keep thinking joint application, joint credit report, joint AAN. But if the reason for denial is because of an individual trade line belonging to the spouse on the joint report a separate notice needs to be sent to the spouse???? Thanks for all the help.