Recently, a jury in the U.S. District Court for Oregon awarded a plaintiff $18.58 million in compensatory and punitive damages for Equifax’s violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  The plaintiff was a co-signor to a loan that was denied by a bank due to the plaintiff’s credit report, which was a “mixed file” that erroneously represented the credit histories of two individuals.  For that reason, the credit report contained an incorrect social security number and multiple delinquencies for debts that the plaintiff never incurred. 

The plaintiff contacted Equifax to correct her credit report on eight different occasions over a two-year period, but Equifax did not resolve the errors.  The jury found that Equifax acted negligently and willfully in violating the FCRA’s error dispute and correction procedures.  Equifax currently is weighing whether to appeal the jury’s verdict. 

The award highlights the significant amount of risk that companies face in working with consumer credit reports.  Companies that are subject to requirements in the FCRA should have comprehensive compliance programs that include mechanisms for resolving customer disputes in a satisfactory manner.

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Photo of Mike Nonaka Mike Nonaka

Michael Nonaka is co-chair of the Financial Services Group and advises banks, financial services providers, fintech companies, and commercial companies on a broad range of compliance, enforcement, transactional, and legislative matters.

He specializes in providing advice relating to federal and state licensing and…

Michael Nonaka is co-chair of the Financial Services Group and advises banks, financial services providers, fintech companies, and commercial companies on a broad range of compliance, enforcement, transactional, and legislative matters.

He specializes in providing advice relating to federal and state licensing and applications matters for banks and other financial institutions, the development of partnerships and platforms to provide innovative financial products and services, and a broad range of compliance areas such as anti-money laundering, financial privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. He also works closely with banks and their directors and senior leadership teams on sensitive supervisory and strategic matters.

Mike plays an active role in the firm’s Fintech Initiative and works with a number of banks, lending companies, money transmitters, payments firms, technology companies, and service providers on innovative technologies such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, blockchain, big data, cloud computing, same day payments, and online lending. He has assisted numerous banks and fintech companies with the launch of innovative deposit and loan products, technology services, and cryptocurrency-related products and services.

Mike has advised a number of clients on compliance with TILA, ECOA, TISA, HMDA, FCRA, EFTA, GLBA, FDCPA, CRA, BSA, USA PATRIOT Act, FTC Act, Reg. K, Reg. O, Reg. W, Reg. Y, state money transmitter laws, state licensed lender laws, state unclaimed property laws, state prepaid access laws, and other federal and state laws and regulations.