FCRA ECOA and Adverse Action

We've been discussing the Compliance Action article regarding the interpretation of FCRA. Has anyone received any feedback from their regulator on this topic? Our corporate compliance officer has told us that his information from the FDIC is that until there is something more definitive from say the FFIEC, we will continue as before. That is, we only provide one notice to the primary applicant as required by Reg B.

If you truly want to know, verify with your regulator what their spin on this is. Issue, non-issue.

I will say that I spoke to some senior regulators about this and the comments were generally that this was an informal opinion and they were not sure if they agreed or not. But that was basically, "I can neither confirm nor deny". And it certainly doesn't insulate you from a suit by a consumer.

I believe you have two people to ask, your counsel and your regulator. Otherwise, realize you are accepting risk, albeit appearently minimal.

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

I suggest you read Lucy's response to me on 12/22 when I posted a similar question. I had to fight long and hard to establish my point with our General Counsel, but he has now agreed that we are better off complying with the FTC's opinions. As Lucy pointed out, they are the lead agency for interpretation of the FCRA, and their opinions hold legal authority in court. I think you must evaluate the risk involved in not complying, and make that determination for your institution.

Now -- thanks to GLBA -- that the banking agencies have reg-writing authority for FCRA, it seems to me that compliance managers/trade associations should be compiling a list of things (with reasonable, supporting arguments) that we want to see addressed in an implementing reg.