100922 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 240 / Friday, December 13, 2024 / Proposed Rules 

1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Launches 

New Way for the Public to Petition the Agency for 

Action (Feb. 16, 2022), https://

www.consumer’ finance.gov/about-us/newsroom/ 

cfpb-launches-new-way-for-the-public-to-petitionthe-agency-for-action/. 

2National Consumer Law Center, Petition for 

Rulemaking to Amend Identity Theft Definitions in 

the Fair Credit Reporting Act (Regulation V) (Aug. 

5, 2024), https://www.regulations.gov/document/ 

CFPB-2024-0037-0001. 

Code Section III, Division 5, as a method 

acceptable to the staff for the materials, 

mechanical/structural design, 

construction, testing, and quality 

assurance of mechanical systems and 

components and their supports of high 

temperature reactors. Proposed Revision 

3 also endorses, with conditions, the 

Code Cases N–861–2, N–862–2, N–872, 

N–898–1, N–812–1, and N–924 as well 

as the Code Case in Record 23–15. 

The staff is also issuing for public 

comment a draft regulatory analysis 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML24275A267). 

The staff developed a regulatory 

analysis to assess the value of issuing or 

revising a regulatory guide as well as 

alternative courses of action. 

As noted in the Federal Register on 

December 9, 2022 (87 FR 75671), this 

document is being published in the 

‘‘Proposed Rules’’ section of the Federal 

Register to comply with publication 

requirements under chapter I of title 1 

of the Code of Federal Regulations 

(CFR). 

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and 

Issue Finality 

If finalized, the NRC staff may use this 

RG as a reference in its regulatory 

processes, such as licensing, inspection, 

or enforcement. However, the NRC staff 

does not intend to use the guidance in 

this RG to support NRC staff actions in 

a manner that would constitute 

backfitting as that term is defined in 

§ 50.109 of title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (10 CFR), 

‘‘Backfitting,’’ and as described in NRC 

Management Directive (MD) 8.4, 

‘‘Management of Backfitting, Forward 

Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information 

Requests’’; nor does the NRC staff 

intend to use the guidance to affect the 

issue finality of an approval under 10 

CFR part 52, ‘‘Licenses, Certifications, 

and Approvals for Nuclear Power 

Plants.’’ The staff also does not intend 

to use the guidance to support NRC staff 

actions in a manner that constitutes 

forward fitting as that term is defined 

and described in MD 8.4. If a licensee 

believes that the NRC is using this RG 

in a manner inconsistent with the 

discussion in this Implementation 

section, then the licensee may file a 

backfitting or forward fitting appeal 

with the NRC in accordance with the 

process in MD 8.4. 

IV. Submitting Suggestions for 

Improvement of Regulatory Guides 

A member of the public may, at any 

time, submit suggestions to the NRC for 

improvement of existing RGs or for the 

development of new RGs. Suggestions 

can be submitted on the NRC’s public 

website at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/reg-guides/ 

contactus.html. Suggestions will be 

considered in future updates and 

enhancements to the ‘‘Regulatory 

Guide’’ series. 

Dated: December 10, 2024. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Harriet Karagiannis, 

Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs 

Management Branch, Division of Engineering, 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29418 Filed 12–12–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION 

BUREAU 

12 CFR Part 1022 

[Docket No. CFPB–2024–0057] 

Fair Credit Reporting Act (Regulation 

V); Identity Theft and Coerced Debt 

AGENCY: Consumer Financial Protection 

Bureau. 

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed 

rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking 

information in advance of preparing a 

proposed rule to address concerns 

related to information furnished to 

credit bureaus and other consumer 

reporting agencies concerning coerced 

debt. More specifically, this advance 

notice of proposed rulemaking solicits 

information on amending the 

definitions of ‘‘identity theft’’ and 

‘‘identity theft report’’ in Regulation V, 

which implements the Fair Credit 

Reporting Act, as well as other related 

amendments to Regulation V, to include 

information stemming from transactions 

that occurred without the consumer’s 

effective consent. 

DATES: Comments must be received by 

March 7, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit responsive 

information and other comments, 

identified by Docket No. CFPB–2024– 

0057 by any of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: 

https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Email: ANPR-Coerced-Debt@

cfpb.gov. Include Docket No. CFPB– 

2024–0057 in the subject line of the 

message. 

• Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: 

Comment Intake—Identity Theft and 

Coerced Debt, c/o Legal Division Docket 

Manager, Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, 

Washington, DC 20552. 

Instructions: The CFPB encourages 

the early submission of comments. All 

submissions should include the agency 

name and docket number. Because 

paper mail is subject to delay, 

commenters are encouraged to submit 

comments electronically. In general, all 

comments received will be posted 

without change to https://

www.regulations.gov. 

All submissions, including 

attachments and other supporting 

materials, will become part of the public 

record and subject to public disclosure. 

Proprietary information or sensitive 

personal information, such as account 

numbers or Social Security numbers, or 

names of other individuals, should not 

be included. Submissions will not be 

edited to remove any identifying or 

contact information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

George Karithanom, Regulatory 

Implementation & Guidance Program 

Analyst, Office of Regulations, at 202– 

435–7700 or at: https://

reginquiries.’ consumer’ finance.gov/. If 

you require this document in an 

alternative electronic format, please 

contact CFPB_Accessibility@cfpb.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

On February 16, 2022, the Consumer 

Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) 

announced updated procedures on how 

the public can submit petitions for 

rulemaking.1 The procedures enable 

members of the public to request 

issuance, modification, or repeal of a 

regulation. In general, the CFPB posts 

these petitions publicly and solicits 

public comment on those petitions. On 

August 5, 2024, the CFPB posted to 

regulations.gov a petition for 

rulemaking from the National Consumer 

Law Center and the Center for Survivor 

Agency and Justice seeking the 

amendment of Regulation V, which 

implements the Fair Credit Reporting 

Act (Docket CFPB–2024–0037–0001).2

The petition requested amendments to 

Regulation V that would enable persons 

with coerced debt to avail themselves of 

identity theft protections under the Fair 

Credit Reporting Act. Specifically, the 

petition requested that the CFPB: 

• Modify the definition of ‘‘identity 

theft’’ to include ‘‘without effective 

consent’’ to provide relief for persons 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 240 / Friday, December 13, 2024 / Proposed Rules 100923 

3Adams, A.E. et al., Development of the scale of 

economic abuse, 14 Violence Against Women 563 

(2008). 

Postmus, J.L. et al., Understanding economic 

abuse in the lives of survivors, 27 J. of Interpersonal 

Violence 411 (2011). 

4See 15 U.S.C. 1681a(q)(3) (expressly authorizing 

the CFPB to ‘‘further defin[e] . . . by regulation’’ 

the term ‘‘identity theft’’). 

5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB 

Helps Survivors Mitigate the Financial 

Consequences of Human Trafficking (Jun. 23, 2022), 

https://www.consumer’ finance.gov/about-us/ 

newsroom/cfpb-helps-survivors-mitigate-thefinancial-consequences-of-human-trafficking/. 

with coerced debt and specify what 

constitutes effective consent. 

• Modify the definition of ‘‘identity 

theft report’’ to reflect the modified 

definition of ‘‘identity theft.’’ 

• Allow the modified definition of 

‘‘identity theft’’ to enable persons with 

coerced debt to utilize the block of 

information resulting from identity 

theft. 

• Clarify that no consumer reporting 

agency (CRA), including specialty 

CRAs, can refuse to block information 

under 15 U.S.C. 1681c–2(c)(1)(C) if the 

consumer is a person with coerced debt. 

The petition highlighted how 

economic abuse, and particularly 

coerced debt, can cause serious and 

lasting harm for survivors of domestic 

violence and others. The petition cited 

research showing that between 94 and 

99 percent of survivors of intimate 

partner violence have experienced 

economic abuse.3 Further, the petition 

emphasized how economic abuse can 

have lasting impacts on survivors of that 

abuse. Commenters on the petition also 

noted that studies show that a majority 

of survivors of domestic violence 

remained longer in abusive 

relationships in part because of their 

coerced debt, that a significant portion 

of survivors reported harm to their 

credit scores due to the actions of 

abusive partners, and that a significant 

portion of survivors who were 

successful in removing coerced debt 

from their credit files experienced 

significant increases to their credit 

scores. Commenters cited research 

showing that survivors of color 

experienced especially acute harm as a 

result of coerced debt. 

After a review of the petition and 

comments received on the petition, the 

CFPB has determined that a rulemaking 

is warranted and will issue a proposed 

rule. The evidence contained in the 

petition and comments received on the 

petition persuasively suggest that 

amending Regulation V to specifically 

account for coercion, and absence of 

effective consent, in the definition of 

identity theft could enable survivors to 

regain control of their financial lives 

and further their physical safety and 

independence from abusers. The CFPB 

has also preliminarily determined that 

addressing this issue is well within the 

statutory authority of the CFPB to define 

‘‘identity theft.’’ 4 The CFPB notes that 

victims of coerced debt can include 

people in a range of abusive 

relationships, including children and 

survivors of elder abuse. The CFPB has 

engaged in similar rulemakings in the 

past under the Debt Bondage Repair Act. 

In 2022, the CFPB finalized a rule to 

prohibit consumer reporting agencies 

from providing consumer reports that 

contain any negative item of 

information about a survivor of human 

trafficking that resulted from the 

trafficking.5

In addition to the record provided by 

the comments responding to the 

petition, the CFPB now seeks additional 

comment from the public to provide 

further information to facilitate the 

preparation of a proposed rule. The 

CFPB welcomes comment on all aspects 

of this advance notice of proposed 

rulemaking from all interested parties 

including survivors of coerced debt and 

their advocates, consumers, consumer 

advocacy groups, legal services 

providers, social service agencies, 

academic researchers, consumer 

reporting agencies, other industry 

members or trade groups, and any other 

members of the public. 

II. Questions 

1. What information exists regarding 

the prevalence and extent of harms to 

victims of economic abuse, particularly 

coerced debt? How does the consumer 

reporting system, including provisions 

relating to identity theft, currently 

contribute to or reduce those harms? 

2. To what extent do protections 

under the FCRA or other Federal or 

State laws exist for victims of economic 

abuse with respect to consumer 

reporting information? What barriers 

exist that may prevent survivors of 

economic abuse from availing 

themselves of existing protections? 

3. Does coerced debt reflect the 

survivor’s credit risk independent of the 

abuser? Why or why not? Is there any 

data addressing the relevance of coerced 

debt to the survivor’s credit risk 

independent of the abuser? 

4. What are the costs and benefits of 

the proposed amendment outlined by 

the petition for rulemaking? 

5. The petition defines ‘‘coerced debt’’ 

as ‘‘all non-consensual, credit-related 

transactions that occur in a relationship 

where one person uses coercive control 

to dominate the other person.’’ What 

alternatives to that language should the 

CFPB consider? 

6. Comments to the petition identify 

survivors of intimate partner violence, 

domestic abuse, and gender-based 

violence as groups that would benefit 

from explicit inclusion of coerced debt 

as a form of identity theft. Commenters 

noted specific vulnerabilities for older 

Americans, children in foster care, and 

survivors of color. 

a. What barriers do these groups face 

as a result of coerced debt? 

b. How would the proposed 

amendments outlined in the petition for 

rulemaking reduce those barriers? 

c. Are there other populations who 

experience problems with coerced debt 

and whose experiences should be 

considered in the proposed rulemaking? 

d. How would the proposed 

amendments outlined in the petition for 

rulemaking address the needs of these 

other populations? 

7. Should the CFPB propose the 

amendments outlined by the petition for 

rulemaking? What alternatives should 

the CFPB consider? For instance: 

a. What documentation should a 

person be required to produce to show 

that their debt was coerced? 

b. What self-attestation mechanisms 

could be considered for meeting the 

standard for an identity theft report? 

c. Are there circumstances that should 

give rise to a presumption of coercion? 

d. Should the CFPB propose general 

protections related to coerced debt, 

specific protections for survivors of 

domestic or intimate partner violence, 

or a combination? 

Rohit Chopra, 

Director, Consumer Financial Protection 

Bureau. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29292 Filed 12–12–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4810–AM–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

14 CFR Part 39 

[Docket No. FAA–2024–2554; Project 

Identifier MCAI–2024–00492–T] 

RIN 2120–AA64 

Airworthiness Directives; Airbus 

Canada Limited Partnership (Type 

Certificate Previously Held by C Series 

Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP); 

Bombardier, Inc.) Airplanes 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 


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