Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Hyundai Capital America (HCA) to pay more than $19 million in penalties for giving inaccurate information to the financial credit bureaus—making this the CFPB’s largest case against an automotive servicer for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Of the penalties, $13 million will impact Hyundai owners.
According to a press release, HCA is a finance subsidiary of the South Korean automotive manufacturer with 1.7 million customers and more than $45 billion in reported assets. But, said the CFPB, HCA had provided the credit bureaus with more than 8.7 million inaccurate reports on more than 2.2 million consumers. And these had an impact, often lowering their customers’ credit scores. Significantly, the CFPB noted how many complaints about HCA it had received from consumers and how this had played a role in its investigation.
CFPB said that HCA violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act between January 2016 and March 2020 because HCA had:
- Failed to report accurate loan and lease information
- Failed to provide a required date of first delinquency
- Failed to correct information
- Failed to put in protections against identity theft
- Failed to have reasonable integrity policies
The CFPB stated that “In many cases, Hyundai knew it was providing inaccurate information and failed to take reasonable measures to address the inaccuracies. Hyundai identified many of the issues causing these inaccuracies in its internal audits, but still took years to address the problems.”
HCA even had a system that automatically furnishes information to credit bureaus—and this system would occasionally override correct information entered by human employees following a credit report dispute.
While admitting no wrong, HCA has committed—in addition to the monetary fines—to improving practices and correcting affected customers’ credit reports.
If you think you may be one of Hyundai’s impacted customers, or you need help with another lender who is furnishing incorrect information to your credit file, contact an attorney at Credit Report Law Group who specializes in representing clients like you—a lawyer who can help you repair your record and obtain compensation for any damages you sustained.