FTC Testifies Before Senate Banking Committee on Fair Credit Reporting Act

Testifying on behalf of the Commission at a hearing on credit bureaus and the FCRA, Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, noted that the Commission has played a key role in the implementation, enforcement, and interpretation of the FCRA since its enactment in 1970. The FCRA requires consumer reporting agencies to follow reasonable procedures to ensure they only provide consumer report information to those with a “permissible purpose” for receiving it; to maintain reasonable procedures to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of the information; and to allow consumers to dispute and correct information in their consumer reports. In the last decade, the FTC has brought more than 30 actions to enforce the FCRA against consumer reporting agencies, users of consumer reports, and furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies.