FAIR AND ACCURATE CREDIT TRANSACTIONS ACT …

1 PUBLIC LAW 108 159 DEC. 4, 2003 fair AND ACCURATE CREDIT TRANSACTIONSACT OF 2003 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 04:48 Dec 12, 2003 Jkt 029139 PO 00159 Frm 00001 Fmt 6579 Sfmt 6579 E:\PUBLAW\ BILLW PsN: PUBL159117 STAT. 1952 PUBLIC LAW 108 159 DEC. 4, 2003 Public Law 108 159108th CongressAn ActTo amend the fair CREDIT reporting Act, to prevent identity theft, improve resolutionof consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of consumer records, make improve-ments in the use of, and consumer access to, CREDIT information, and for it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives ofthe United States of America in Congress assembled,SECTION 1.

2 SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.(a) SHORTTITLE. This Act may be cited as the fair andAccurate CREDIT TRANSACTIONS Act of 2003 .(b) TABLE OFCONTENTS. The table of contents for this Actis as follows:Sec. 1. Short title; table of 2. 3. Effective I IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION AND CREDIT HISTORYRESTORATIONS ubtitle A Identity Theft PreventionSec. 111. Amendment to 112. Fraud alerts and active duty 113. Truncation of CREDIT card and debit card account 114. Establishment of procedures for the identification of possible instances ofidentity 115.

3 Authority to truncate social security B Protection and Restoration of Identity Theft Victim CREDIT HistorySec. 151. Summary of rights of identity theft 152. Blocking of information resulting from identity 153. Coordination of identity theft complaint 154. Prevention of repollution of consumer 155. Notice by debt collectors with respect to fraudulent 156. Statute of 157. Study on the use of technology to combat identity II IMPROVEMENTS IN USE OF AND CONSUMER ACCESS TO CREDITINFORMATIONSec. 211. Free consumer 212. Disclosure of CREDIT 213.

4 Enhanced disclosure of the means available to opt out of 214. Affiliate 215. Study of effects of CREDIT scores and CREDIT -based insurance scores onavailability and affordability of financial 216. Disposal of consumer report information and 217. Requirement to disclose communications to a consumer reporting III ENHANCING THE ACCURACY OF CONSUMER REPORTINFORMATIONSec. 311. Risk-based pricing USC andAccurate CreditTransactions Actof 4, 2003[ 2622]VerDate 11-MAY-2000 04:48 Dec 12, 2003 Jkt 029139 PO 00159 Frm 00002 Fmt 6580 Sfmt 6582 E:\PUBLAW\ BILLW PsN: PUBL159117 STAT.

5 1953 PUBLIC LAW 108 159 DEC. 4, 2003 Sec. 312. Procedures to enhance the accuracy and integrity of information fur-nished to consumer reporting 313. FTC and consumer reporting agency action concerning 314. Improved disclosure of the results of 315. Reconciling 316. Notice of dispute through 317. Reasonable reinvestigation 318. FTC study of issues relating to the fair CREDIT reporting 319. FTC study of the accuracy of consumer IV LIMITING THE USE AND SHARING OF MEDICAL INFORMATIONIN THE FINANCIAL SYSTEMSec. 411. Protection of medical information in the financial 412.

6 Confidentiality of medical contact information in consumer V FINANCIAL LITERACY AND EDUCATION IMPROVEMENTSec. 511. Short 512. 513. Establishment of Financial Literacy and Education 514. Duties of the 515. Powers of the 516. Commission personnel 517. Studies by the Comptroller 518. The national public service multimedia campaign to enhance the state offinancial 519. Authorization of VI PROTECTING EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATIONSSec. 611. Certain employee investigation communications excluded from definitionof consumer VII RELATION TO STATE LAWSSec.

7 711. Relation to State VIII MISCELLANEOUSSec. 811. Clerical 2. used in this Act (1) the term Board means the Board of Governors ofthe Federal Reserve System;(2) the term Commission , other than as used in titleV, means the Federal Trade Commission;(3) the terms consumer , consumer report , consumerreporting agency , creditor , Federal banking agencies , and financial institution have the same meanings as in section603 of the fair CREDIT reporting Act, as amended by thisAct; and(4) the term affiliates means persons that are relatedby common ownership or affiliated by corporate 3.

8 EFFECTIVE as otherwise specifically provided in this Act and theamendments made by this Act (1) before the end of the 2-month period beginning onthe date of enactment of this Act, the Board and the Commis-sion shall jointly prescribe regulations in final form establishingeffective dates for each provision of this Act; and(2) the regulations prescribed under paragraph (1) shallestablish effective dates that are as early as possible, whileallowing a reasonable time for the implementation of the provi-sions of this Act, but in no case shall any such effective datebe later than 10 months after the date of issuance of suchregulations in final USC USC 11-MAY-2000 04:48 Dec 12, 2003 Jkt 029139 PO 00159 Frm 00003 Fmt 6580 Sfmt 6581 E:\PUBLAW\ BILLW PsN: PUBL159117 STAT.

9 1954 PUBLIC LAW 108 159 DEC. 4, 2003 TITLE I IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTIONAND CREDIT HISTORY RESTORATIONS ubtitle A Identity Theft PreventionSEC. 111. AMENDMENT TO 603 of the fair CREDIT reporting Act (15 1681a)is amended by adding at the end the following: (q) DEFINITIONSRELATING TOFRAUDALERTS. (1) ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY CONSUMER. The term activeduty military consumer means a consumer in military servicewho (A) is on active duty (as defined in section 101(d)(1)of title 10, United States Code) or is a reservist performingduty under a call or order to active duty under a provisionof law referred to in section 101(a)(13) of title 10, UnitedStates Code; and (B) is assigned to service away from the usual dutystation of the consumer.

10 (2) FRAUD ALERT; ACTIVE DUTY ALERT. The terms fraudalert and active duty alert mean a statement in the fileof a consumer that (A) notifies all prospective users of a consumer reportrelating to the consumer that the consumer may be avictim of fraud, including identity theft, or is an activeduty military consumer, as applicable; and (B) is presented in a manner that facilitates a clearand conspicuous view of the statement described insubparagraph (A) by any person requesting such consumerreport. (3) IDENTITY THEFT.