Regulations that became effective in 2008 affect NAR members that have affiliated businesses and those that deal with credit reports. The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 (FCRA) was amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act) late in 2007 adding several new regulations affecting some NAR members.

Generally, the FACT Act requires the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision (the Agencies) to issue joint regulations and guidelines regarding the detection, prevention, and mitigation of identity theft.

The Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancy Rules require all users of credit reports to take certain actions whenever a credit report contains a notice of an address discrepancy. The rules also require all creditors, and those that regularly arrange for credit to be provided, to establish policies and procedures to protect against identity theft. This rule affects NAR members who use credit reports.

The final rules were published by all of the Federal banking agencies and the FTC on November 9, 2007, as part of a joint rulemaking. The mandatory compliance date for the Identity Theft Red Flag Guidelines was November 1, 2008.
Advertisement