Home > 108th Congressional Bills > H.R. 2622 (enr) To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act, to prevent identity theft, improve resolution of consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of consumer records, make improvements in the use of, and consumer access to, credit information, and for othe...H.R. 2622 (enr) To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act, to prevent identity theft, improve resolution of consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of consumer records, make improvements in the use of, and consumer access to, credit information, and for othe...
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2622
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act, to prevent identity theft,
improve resolution of consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of
consumer records, make improvements in the use of, and consumer access
to, credit information, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Fair and Accurate
Credit Transactions Act of 2003''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act are as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
Sec. 3. Effective dates.
TITLE I--UNIFORM NATIONAL CONSUMER PROTECTION STANDARDS
Sec. 101. Uniform national consumer protection standards made
permanent.
TITLE II--IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION
Sec. 201. Investigating changes of address and inactive accounts.
Sec. 202. Fraud alerts.
Sec. 203. Truncation of credit card and debit card account numbers.
Sec. 204. Summary of rights of identity theft victims.
Sec. 205. Blocking of information resulting from identity theft.
Sec. 206. Establishment of procedures for depository institutions to
identify possible instances of identity
theft.
Sec. 207. Study on the use of technology to combat identity theft.
TITLE III--IMPROVING RESOLUTION OF CONSUMER DISPUTES
Sec. 301. Coordination of consumer complaint investigations.
Sec. 302. Notice of dispute through reseller.
Sec. 303. Reasonable investigation required.
Sec. 304. Duties of furnishers of information.
Sec. 305. Prompt investigation of disputed consumer information.
TITLE IV--IMPROVING ACCURACY OF CONSUMER RECORDS
Sec. 401. Reconciling addresses.
Sec. 402. Prevention of repollution of consumer reports.
Sec. 403. Notice by users with respect to fraudulent information.
Sec. 404. Disclosure to consumers of contact information for users and
furnishers of information in consumer
reports.
Sec. 405. FTC study of the accuracy of consumer reports.
TITLE V--IMPROVEMENTS IN USE OF AND CONSUMER ACCESS TO CREDIT
INFORMATION
Sec. 501. Free reports annually.
Sec. 502. Disclosure of credit scores.
Sec. 503. Simpler and easier method for consumers to use notification
system.
Sec. 504. Requirement to disclose communications to a consumer
reporting agency.
Sec. 505. Study of effects of credit scores and credit-based insurance
scores on availability and affordability of
financial products.
Sec. 506. GAO study on disparate impact of credit system.
Sec. 507. Analysis of further restrictions on offers of credit or
insurance.
Sec. 508. Study on the need and the means for improving financial
literacy among consumers.
Sec. 509. Disclosure of increase in APR under certain circumstances.
TITLE VI--PROTECTING EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATIONS
Sec. 601. Certain employee investigation communications excluded from
definition of consumer report.
TITLE VII--LIMITING THE USE AND SHARING OF MEDICAL INFORMATION IN THE
FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Sec. 701. Protection of medical information in the financial system.
Sec. 702. Confidentiality of medical information in credit reports.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
Section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is
amended by adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(r) Reseller.--The term `reseller' means a consumer reporting
agency that--
``(1) assembles and merges information contained in the
database of another consumer reporting agency or multiple
consumer reporting agencies concerning any consumer for
purposes of furnishing such information to any third party, to
the extent of such activities; and
``(2) does not maintain a database of the assembled or
merged information from which new consumer reports are
produced.
``(s) Other Definitions.--
``(1) Board; credit; creditor; credit card.--The terms
`Board', `credit', `creditor', and `credit card' have the same
meanings as in section 103 of the Truth in Lending Act.
``(2) Commission.--The term `Commission' means the Federal
Trade Commission.
``(3) Debit card.--The term `debit card' means any card
issued by a financial institution to a consumer for use in
initiating electronic fund transfers (as defined in section
903(6) of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act) from the account
(as defined in such Act) of the consumer at such financial
institution for the purpose of transferring money between
accounts or obtaining money, property, labor, or services.
``(4) Electronic fund transfer.--The term `electronic fund
transfer' has the same meaning as in section 903 of the
Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
``(5) Federal banking agency.--The term `Federal banking
agency' has the same meaning as in section 3 of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Act.
``(6) Identity theft.--The term `identity theft' means a
fraud committed using another person's identifying information,
subject to such further definition as the Commission and the
Board may prescribe, jointly, by regulation.
``(7) Police report.--The term `police report' means a copy
of any official valid report filed by a consumer with any
appropriate Federal, State, or local government law enforcement
agency, or any comparable official government document that the
Board and the Commission shall jointly prescribe in
regulations, that is subject to a criminal penalty for false
statements.''.
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATES.
(a) In General.--Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c)--
(1) before the end of the 2-month period beginning on the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Trade Commission
shall jointly prescribe regulations in final form establishing
effective dates for each provision of this Act (except as
otherwise specified); and
(2) the regulations prescribed under paragraph (1) shall
establish effective dates that are as early as possible while
allowing a reasonable time for the implementation of the
provisions of this Act, but in no case shall the effective date
be later than 10 months after the date of issuance of such
regulations in final form.
(b) Immediate Effective Date.--The following provisions shall take
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act:
(1) Title I.
(2) Section 201.
(3) Section 609(d)(1) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (as
added by the amendment in section 204(a)).
(4) Section 305.
(5) Section 505.
(6) Section 506.
(7) Title VI.
(c) Effective Date for Protection of Medical Information in the
Financial System.--Section 701 shall take effect at the end of the 180-
day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, except
that paragraph (2) of section 604(g) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(as added by section 701) shall take effect on the later of--
(1) the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date the
regulations required under paragraph (5)(B) of such section
604(g) (as added by section 701) are prescribed in final form;
or
(2) the date specified in the regulations referred to in
paragraph (1).
(d) Criteria For Orderly Implementation of Free Annual Credit
Report Provision.--
(1) In general.--In developing the regulations and
effective dates under subsection (a) (and subject to the time
limits in paragraph (2) and subsection (a)), the Federal Trade
Commission and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System shall provide a systematic approach for implementing the
amendment made by section 501 that allows for an orderly
transition to the consumer report distribution system required
by the amendment in a manner that--
(A) does not temporarily overwhelm consumer
reporting agencies with requests for disclosures of
consumer reports beyond their capacity to deliver; and
(B) does not deny creditors, other users, and
consumers access to consumer credit reports on a time-
sensitive basis for specific purposes, such as home
purchases or suspicions of identity theft, during the
transition period.
(2) Prohibition on extension of effective date.--
(A) One-time authorization.--The Federal Trade
Commission and the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System may exercise the authority provided
under paragraph (1) only once during the 2-month period
referred to in subsection (a)(1).
(B) Extension of effective date prohibited.--No
provision of this subsection shall be construed as
extending, or authorizing the Federal Trade Commission
or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
to extend, the 2-month period referred to in subsection
(a)(1) or the 10-month period referred to in subsection
(a)(2) relating to the requirements imposed on consumer
reporting agencies by the amendment made by section
501.
TITLE I--UNIFORM NATIONAL CONSUMER PROTECTION STANDARDS
SEC. 101. UNIFORM NATIONAL CONSUMER PROTECTION STANDARDS MADE
PERMANENT.
Section 624(d) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C.
1681t(d)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``Subsections (b) and (c)'' and all that
follows through ``do not affect any settlement,'' and inserting
``Subsections (b) and (c) do not affect any settlement,''; and
(2) by striking ``Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of
1996'' and all that follows through the period at the end of
paragraph (2) and inserting ``Consumer Credit Reporting Reform
Act of 1996.''.
TITLE II--IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION
SEC. 201. INVESTIGATING CHANGES OF ADDRESS AND INACTIVE ACCOUNTS.
(a) In General.--Section 605 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15
U.S.C. 1681c) is amended by inserting after subsection (f), the
following new subsection:
``(g) `Red Flag' Patterns of Possible Identity Theft.--
``(1) Investigation of changes of address.--The Federal
banking agencies and the National Credit Union Administration,
in carrying out the responsibilities of such agencies and
Administration under subsection (k), shall jointly prescribe
regulations for credit card and debit card issuers to ensure
that, if any such issuer receives a request for an additional
or replacement card for an existing account within a short
period of time after the issuer has received notification of a
change of address for the same account, the issuer will follow
reasonable policies and procedures that require, as
appropriate, that the issuer not issue the additional or
replacement card unless the issuer--
``(A) notifies the cardholder of the request at the
former address of the cardholder and provides to the
cardholder a means of promptly reporting incorrect address changes;
``(B) notifies the cardholder of the request by
such other means of communication as the cardholder and
the card issuer previously agreed to; or
``(C) uses other means of assessing the validity of
the change of address, in accordance with reasonable
policies and procedures established by the card issuer
in accordance with the regulations prescribed under
subsection (k).
``(2) Inactive accounts.--The Federal banking agencies and
the National Credit Union Administration, in carrying out the
responsibilities of such agencies and Administration under
subsection (k), shall consider including, as a possible `red
flag' pattern, reasonable guidelines providing that when a
transaction occurs with respect to a credit or deposit account
that has been inactive for more than 2 years, the creditor or
depository institution shall follow reasonable policies and
procedures that provide for notice to be given to a consumer in
a manner reasonably designed to reduce the likelihood of
identity theft with respect to such account.''.
(b) Clerical Amendments.--
(1) The heading for section 605 of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act is amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 605. Requirements relating to information contained in consumer
reports and to identity theft prevention''.
(2) The table of sections for title VI of the Consumer
Credit Protection Act is amended by striking the item relating
to section 605 and inserting the following new item:
``605. Requirements relating to information contained in consumer
reports and to identity theft
prevention.''.
Other Popular 108th Congressional Bills Documents:
|
| GovRecords.org presents information on various agencies of the United States Government. Even though all information is believed to be credible and accurate, no guarantees are made on the complete accuracy of our government records archive. Care should be taken to verify the information presented by responsible parties. Please see our reference page for congressional, presidential, and judicial branch contact information. GovRecords.org values visitor privacy. Please see the privacy page for more information. |
 |