Credit Reporting & FCRA Compliance Experts Reveal Their List of Top Self-Audit Questions

Are you looking for a way to significantly reduce the risk of credit reporting accuracy issues that could lead to costly disputes, complaints, or regulatory inquiries, but aren’t sure where to start? Well, you’re in luck!  For a limited time and for a limited number of respondents, Bridgeforce Data Solutions (BDS), a recognized expert in Credit Reporting and FCRA Compliance and provider of the only independent credit reporting accuracy solution partnered with a credit bureau, is offering free access to their Top Credit Reporting Self-Audit Questions and a 30-minute consultation with one of our Credit Reporting and FCRA Compliance Experts to review your results and answer your questions. 

Additionally, thanks to a new partnership with Equifax, credit reporting furnishers now have seamless access to Bridgeforce’s industry-leading Data Quality Scanner® along with credit reporting and disputes management consulting. Together, Equifax and Bridgeforce offer a best-in-class credit reporting compliance and disputes management solution. We’ll share more on this innovative new partnership after we spill the beans on the Top Credit Reporting Self-Audit Questions.

Bridgeforce Credit Reporting and FCRA Compliance Experts were asked for their top self-audit questions within the following four key Credit Reporting and FCRA Compliance areas: Furnishing, Disputes, Usage, and Enterprise Governance and Oversight, and here’s what they said. We recommend you review these self-audit questions and if you are unsure or not able to answer “yes” to them, we recommend you take action now to be able to meet these regulatory expectations:

Furnishing

1. Does your organization have a formal process to conduct reviews prior to transmission of credit/deposit reporting files to the CRAs?
2. Does your organization have a formal process to review the reject & error reports from the CRAs every month and other applicable internal reports to ensure any corrections required are made promptly?
3. Do you have any automated tools or solutions to review furnishing data across your enterprise and drill down to both the rule and account level to ensure compliance with credit/deposit reporting (i.e., Metro 2®, EWS and ChexSystems) reporting requirements?
4. If yes, do your automated tools or solutions compare month-over-month credit/deposit reporting data to see where values do not conform to reporting requirements, and where fields contain illogical progressions?
5.  Do you formally conduct root-cause analysis of these credit/deposit reporting corrections to examine if the identified issue(s) are impacting a larger number of customers?
6. Are you including credit/deposit reporting as part of regression testing when you make changes to the systems that produce your credit/deposit reporting furnishing files?
7. Have you examined upstream operational processes that can affect credit/deposit reporting furnishing accuracy (e.g., id theft, bankruptcy, repossession, forbearance, charge-off)? 

Disputes

1.  Have you looked at your credit/deposit reporting disputes processes through the lens of your customers, including assessing the effectiveness of your communications to them?
2. Do you have a formalized and documented process in place to ensure that your Disputes Analysts are consistently conducting an all-inclusive reasonable investigation?
3. Do you formally conduct root-cause analysis of the credit/deposit reporting disputes that have led to corrections to examine if the identified issue(s) are impacting a larger number of customers?
4. Do you have effective controls and control point monitoring for credit/deposit reporting disputes?

Usage of Consumer Reports

1.  Do you have an inventory of every person, department, and function for buying and using credit reports?
2. Do you understand how your institution is using credit reporting data and derivatives of that data for modeling, pricing, and other decisions that affect your customers?
3. Do you have sufficient controls implemented for granting access to credit reports and ensuring that a permissible purpose exists to acquire the reports?
4. Do your policies and procedures for credit reports also include alternative data beyond the traditional credit bureaus?

Enterprise Governance and Oversight

1. Do you have enterprise-wide policy, standards, and procedures to ensure consistent and controlled execution of credit/deposit reporting furnishing, disputes handling, and usage?
2. Do you have a process established to evaluate Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) and Credit Reporting Resource Guide (CRRG) updates, regulatory and state Attorney General’s publications, and FCRA litigation outcomes to adapt your practices accordingly?
3. Does your organization have detailed field-by-field data mapping and conversion documents for each data element in all applicable credit/deposit reporting standards (i.e., Metro 2®, EWS, and ChexSystems) that you can share with auditors and regulators?
4. Does your organization conduct an industry standard annual data audit process with all the credit/deposit reporting providers you furnish to?

We know achieving a high level of credit reporting accuracy and regulatory compliance expectations can often sound like an unreachable goal. And that used to be true. But now, you’re in luck. The Bridgeforce Data Quality Scanner (DQS) is the only independent credit reporting accuracy solution partnered with a credit bureau and was designed to do just that. Our easy-to-use cloud-based, automated diagnostic solution enables you to quickly identify discrepancies that can lead to costly disputes, complaints, or regulatory inquiries and as we noted earlier, thanks to an innovative partnership between Bridgeforce and Equifax you can now quickly and easily use DQS to:

Find: Go beyond internal solutions with 380+ risk-ranked rules and month-over-month analysis
Prioritize: Automate file inspections and drill down into account-level detail to find the root cause of issues
Fix: Leverage our consulting support to address all your credit reporting and dispute needs

So, if you were unsure or not able to answer “yes” the self-audit questions, we recommend you take action now and schedule your free 30-minute consultation with one of our Credit Reporting and FCRA Compliance Experts to review your results and answer your questions.