ATLANTA — The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Equifax to pay $15 million after it “failed to conduct adequate investigations of disputed information in credit reports.”
According to CFPB, the national consumer reporting agency ignored consumer documents and evidence submitted for credit disputes and allowed previously removed inaccurate information to be put back in reports.
The Bureau said Equifax also provided confusing and conflicting letters to consumers about its investigative results and used flawed software code to inaccurately report consumer credit scores.
Now, Equifax will have to pay $15 million, which will be put in a CFPB victim relief fund.
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“Equifax failed in its basic duty to investigate and resolve consumer disputes about inaccurate information on their credit reports,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “Today’s order requires Equifax to pay a civil penalty and follow federal laws on handling credit reporting disputes.”
According to CFPB, Equifax processes about 765,000 disputes every month an aggregates data about adult consumers to then sell to customers as reports used by lenders, employers, landlords and others for their decision-making processes.
In their announcement on the enforcement action, CFPB said Equifax failed to thoroughly investigate consumer disputes, put incorrect information back on credit reports and failed to block identify theft-related information, as well as shared inaccurate credit scores and data about 50,000 consumers due to bad code.
While Equifax will pay the $15 million, according to CFPB, they will also have to change their dispute resolution processes to be legally compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Consumer Financial Protection Act.
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