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The Federal Trade Commission and the federal financial regulatory agencies (the Agencies) have approved proposed regulations and guidelines to help ensure the accuracy and integrity of information provided to consumer reporting agencies and to allow consumers to directly dispute inaccuracies with financial institutions and other entities that furnish information to consumer reporting agencies. This information is widely used to determine eligibility for credit, employment, insurance, and rental housing.

The proposal would implement section 312 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

As required by Section 312, the Agencies are proposing guidelines regarding the accuracy and integrity of the information that entities furnish to a consumer reporting agency. The Agencies also are proposing regulations that would require each entity that furnishes information to a consumer reporting agency to establish reasonable policies and procedures for implementing the guidelines.

The proposed rules would allow consumers to dispute inaccuracies about certain information reflected on their consumer reports directly with the furnishers of that information.

The proposed rules and guidelines are attached. The proposal will be published soon in the Federal Register and the comment period will end 60 days thereafter. The Commission vote authorizing the publication of the proposed rules and guidelines and Federal Register notice was 5-0.

Copies of the document mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.