The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interim final rule making changes to two model disclosure forms — summary of consumer rights and summary of identity theft rights — to reflect changes made to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by S. 2155, the new regulatory reform law. The changes become effective Sept. 21, and the updated model forms are available both in English and in Spanish.
The law requires consumer reporting agencies to provide consumers with the ability to freeze their credit free of charge, and for consumers to be notified of the security freeze right when receiving either of the two disclosures. It also extends to one year the minimum time that reporting agencies must include an initial fraud alert in a consumer’s file, which alerts prospective lenders that the consumer may have been a victim of identity theft.