- Case
- Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Regulation V in Light of the CARES Act
- Source
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Decided
- April 1, 2020
- Bottom line
- The pandemic-era enforcement leniency on dispute deadlines ended April 1, 2021, and it never changed the statute or a consumer's right to sue over a late or inadequate investigation.
Background
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers a firm timeline for disputes. When a consumer disputes an item, the credit bureau generally must complete a reinvestigation within 30 days, extendable to 45 days if the consumer sends additional relevant information during the first 30. 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1). Furnishers that receive a dispute from a bureau must complete their own investigation within the same period. § 1681s-2(b)(2).
Days after Congress passed the CARES Act in March 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a policy statement addressing how it would supervise credit bureaus and furnishers during the pandemic. The CFPB said the crisis “poses operational challenges for consumer reporting agencies and furnishers, including staffing challenges, that could temporarily impede their ability to timely comply with their statutory and regulatory consumer reporting obligations.”
What the rule does
The April 1, 2020 statement was not a regulation. The CFPB described it as “a non-binding general statement of policy” about how it would use its own supervisory and enforcement discretion. It had three main parts.
Furnishing. The CFPB encouraged lenders to keep reporting to the bureaus, reminded them that the CARES Act required certain accounts with COVID-19 accommodations to be reported as current, and said it did not intend to cite or take enforcement action against furnishers that accurately reported the payment relief they provided.
Dispute deadlines. The CFPB said it “does not intend to cite in an examination or bring an enforcement action against a consumer reporting agency or furnisher making good faith efforts to investigate disputes as quickly as possible, even if dispute investigations take longer than the statutory timeframe.”
Frivolous disputes and credit repair. The CFPB reminded bureaus and furnishers that they need not investigate disputes submitted by credit repair organizations or disputes reasonably determined to be frivolous or irrelevant, and said it would consider pandemic resource constraints in judging whether such a determination was reasonable.
Rescission. On March 31, 2021, the CFPB announced it was rescinding the statement effective April 1, 2021, except for the section on furnishing consumer information affected by COVID-19. Announcing the change, Acting Director Dave Uejio said, “Providing regulatory flexibility to companies should not come at the expense of consumers.”
Our take
The pandemic did disrupt operations, and some flexibility in how a regulator prioritizes its own examinations was understandable in the spring of 2020. But the dispute portion of this statement drew criticism for good reason. It arrived exactly when consumers most needed the dispute system to work, because millions of accounts were being moved into deferrals and forbearances that could easily be misreported.
It is also important to be clear about what the statement did not do. A policy statement about agency enforcement priorities cannot amend a statute. The 30-day deadline in § 1681i remained the law throughout, and the statement did not purport to limit private lawsuits under §§ 1681n and 1681o. Credit bureaus that relied on the statement as a defense to a consumer’s claim would have been relying on something the CFPB itself called non-binding.
We think the CFPB was right to rescind the dispute leniency in 2021. The surviving furnishing section is unobjectionable: it tells lenders that accurately reporting a relief program is not a violation, which is true.
What it means if your report is wrong
If you disputed an error and the bureau took longer than 30 days to respond, or never responded, that delay may matter to a claim, whether it happened during the pandemic or after. Keep your dispute letters, mailing receipts, and the bureaus’ responses, and note the dates. Disputes should be specific and include documents that show the error. If a bureau or furnisher ignored a dispute or verified information you can show is wrong, a free case review can help you understand your options, and there is no fee unless we win.
Sources
Primary
- CFPB policy statement (Apr. 1, 2020), with rescission notice
- CFPB press release — CFPB rescinds series of policy statements (Mar. 31, 2021)
Commentary we reviewed
Updated November 1, 2026. "Our take" is the firm's opinion. This page is general information, not legal advice, and later decisions may change the law.