37700 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 121 / Friday, June 24, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

(iv) For ballasts designed to operate 

lamps rated less than 150 W that have 

120 V as an available input voltage, 

testing must be performed at 120 V. For 

ballasts designed to operate lamps rated 

less than 150 W that do not have 120 V 

as an available voltage, testing must be 

performed at the highest available input 

voltage. For ballasts designed to operate 

lamps rated greater than or equal to 150 

W that have 277 V as an available input 

voltage, testing must be conducted at 

277 V. For ballasts designed to operate 

lamps rated greater than or equal to 150 

W that do not have 277 V as an available 

input voltage, testing must be conducted 

at the highest available input voltage. 

(v) Operate dimming ballasts at 

maximum input power. 

(vi) Select the metal halide lamp for 

testing as follows: 

(A) The metal halide lamp used for 

testing must meet the specifications of 

a reference lamp as defined by ANSI 

C82.9–2016 and the rated values of the 

corresponding lamp data sheet as 

specified in ANSI C78.43–2017 (both 

incorporated by reference; see 

§ 431.323) for single-ended lamps and 

ANSI C78.44–2016 (incorporated by 

reference; see § 431.323) for doubleended lamps. 

(B) Ballasts designated with ANSI 

codes corresponding to more than one 

lamp must be tested with the lamp 

having the highest nominal lamp 

wattage as specified in ANSI C78.43– 

2017 or ANSI C78.44–2016, as 

applicable. 

(C) Ballasts designated with ANSI 

codes corresponding to both ceramic 

metal halide lamps (code beginning 

with ‘‘C’’) and quartz metal halide 

lamps (code beginning with ‘‘M’’) of the 

same nominal lamp wattage must be 

tested with the quartz metal halide 

lamp. 

(3) Test method—(i) Stabilization 

criteria—(A) General instruction. Lamp 

must be seasoned as prescribed in 

Section 4.4.1 of ANSI C82.6–2015 

(R2020). 

(B) Basic stabilization method. Lamps 

using the basic stabilization method 

must be stabilized in accordance with 

Section 4.4.2 of ANSI C82.6–2015 

(R2020). Stabilization is reached when 

the lamp’s electrical characteristics vary 

by no more than 3-percent in three 

consecutive 10- to 15-minute intervals 

measured after the minimum burning 

time of 30 minutes. 

(C) Alternative stabilization method. 

In cases where switching from the 

reference ballast to test ballast without 

extinguishing the lamp is impossible, 

such as for low-frequency electronic 

ballasts, the alternative stabilization 

method must be used. Lamps using the 

alternative stabilization method must be 

stabilized in accordance with Section 

4.4.3 of ANSI C82.6–2015 (R2020). 

(ii) Test measurements. (A) The 

ballast input power during operating 

conditions must be measured in 

accordance with the methods specified 

in Sections 6.1 and 6.8 of ANSI C82.6– 

2015 (R2020). 

(B) The ballast output (lamp) power 

during operating conditions must be 

measured in accordance with the 

methods specified in Sections 6.2 and 

6.10 of ANSI C82.6–2015 (R2020). 

(C) For ballasts with a frequency of 60 

Hz, the ballast input and output power 

shall be measured after lamps have been 

stabilized according to Section 4.4 of 

ANSI C82.6–2015 (R2020) using a 

wattmeter with accuracy specified in 

Section 4.5 of ANSI C82.6–2015 

(R2020); and 

(D) For ballasts with a frequency 

greater than 60 Hz, the ballast input and 

output power shall have a basic 

accuracy of ±0.5 percent at the higher of 

either 3 times the output operating 

frequency of the ballast or 2.4 kHz. 

(iii) Calculations. (A) To determine 

the percent efficiency of the ballast 

under test, divide the measured ballast 

output (lamp) power, as measured in 

paragraph (b)(3)(ii) of this section, by 

the measured ballast input power, as 

measured in paragraph (b)(3)(ii) of this 

section. Calculate percent efficiency to 

three significant figures. 

(B) [Reserved] 

(c) Standby mode procedure—(1) 

General instructions. Measure standby 

mode energy consumption only for a 

ballast that is capable of operating in 

standby mode. Specifications in 

referenced standards that are 

recommended, that ‘‘shall’’ or ‘‘should’’ 

be met, or that are not otherwise 

explicitly optional, are mandatory. 

When there is a conflict, the language of 

the test procedure in this section takes 

precedence over IEC 63103 

(incorporated by reference; see 

§ 431.323). 

(2) Test conditions and setup. (i) 

Establish and maintain test conditions 

and setup in accordance with paragraph 

(b)(2) of this section. 

(ii) Connect each ballast to a lamp as 

specified in paragraph (b)(2)(vi) of this 

section. Note: ballast operation with a 

reference lamp is not required. 

(3) Test method and measurement. (i) 

Turn on all of the lamps at full light 

output. If any lamp is not functional, 

replace the lamp and repeat the test 

procedure. If the ballast will not operate 

any lamps, replace the unit under test. 

(ii) Send a signal to the ballast 

instructing it to have zero light output 

using the appropriate ballast 

communication protocol or system for 

the ballast being tested. 

(iii) Stabilize the ballast prior to 

measurement using one of the methods 

as specified in Section 5.4 of IEC 63103. 

(iv) Measure the standby mode energy 

consumption in watts using one of the 

methods as specified in Section 5.4 of 

IEC 63103. 

[FR Doc. 2022–13459 Filed 6–23–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL 

PROTECTION 

12 CFR Part 1022 

[Docket No. CFPB–2022–0023] 

RIN 3170–AB12 

Prohibition on Inclusion of Adverse 

Information in Consumer Reporting in 

Cases of Human Trafficking 

(Regulation V) 

AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial 

Protection. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: The Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau (Bureau) is amending 

Regulation V, which implements the 

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), to 

address recent legislation that assists 

consumers who are victims of 

trafficking. This final rule establishes a 

method for a victim of trafficking to 

submit documentation to consumer 

reporting agencies, including 

information identifying any adverse 

item of information about the consumer 

that resulted from certain types of 

human trafficking, and prohibits the 

consumer reporting agencies from 

furnishing a consumer report containing 

the adverse item(s) of information. The 

Bureau is taking this action as mandated 

by the National Defense Authorization 

Act for Fiscal Year 2022 to assist 

consumers who are victims of 

trafficking in building or rebuilding 

financial stability and personal 

independence. 

DATES: This final rule is effective July 

25, 2022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Daniel Tingley, Counsel; Lanique 

Eubanks or Brandy Hood, Senior 

Counsels, Office of Regulations, at 202– 

435–7700 or https://

reginquiries.consumerfinance.gov/. If 

you require this document in an 

alternative electronic format, please 

contact CFPB_Accessibility@cfpb.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 121 / Friday, June 24, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 37701 

1Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq. 

For ease of reference, section 605C of the FCRA is 

generally referred to as ‘‘section 605C’’ throughout 

this notice. 

2National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2022 (2022 NDAA), Public Law 117–81, 

section 6102, 135 Stat. 2383–84 (2021) (to be 

codified at 15 U.S.C. 1681c–3), https://

www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ81/PLAW117publ81.pdf. The sponsors of this section of the 

2022 NDAA and some advocates refer to this law 

as the ‘‘Debt Bondage Repair Act,’’ in reference to 

H.R. 2332 (introduced in the 117th Congress on 

Apr. 1, 2021). 

3For purposes of this rule, the terms ‘‘severe 

forms of trafficking in persons’’ and ‘‘sex 

trafficking’’ will be referred to individually (as 

defined in the section-by-section analysis of 

§ 1022.142(b)) or collectively as ‘‘trafficking.’’ 

4U.S. Dep’t of State, About Human Trafficking, 

https://www.state.gov/humantrafficking-abouthuman-trafficking (last visited June 20, 2022). 

5 Id. 

6Publish Law 106–386, 114 Stat. 1464. 

7U.S. Dep’t of Just., Key Legislation, https://

www.justice.gov/humantrafficking/key-legislation 

(last visited June 20, 2022). 

8 Id.; see also 18 U.S.C. 1589 through 1591. 

9See, e.g., William Wilberforce Trafficking 

Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, 

Public Law 110–457, 122 Stat. 5044; Justice for 

Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, Public Law 114– 

22, 129 Stat. 227 (creating the National Human 

Trafficking Hotline by directing the Secretary of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) to make grants 

for a national communication system to assist 

victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons in 

communicating with service providers and give 

priority to grant applicants that have experience in 

providing telephone services to victims of severe 

forms of trafficking in persons). 

10Coordination Collaboration Capacity, Federal 

Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of 

Human Trafficking in the United States 2013–2017 

(Jan. 2014), at 9, https://ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/ 

xyckuh226/files/media/document/ 

FederalHumanTraffickingStrategicPlan.pdf. 

11The Bureau recognizes that some individuals 

and advocates prefer the term ‘‘survivor’’ to 

‘‘victim.’’ As the Department of Justice (DOJ) has 

explained, ‘‘[b]oth terms are important and have 

different implications when used in the context of 

victim advocacy and service provision. For 

example, the term ‘victim’ has legal implications 

within the criminal justice process and refers to an 

individual who suffered harm as a result of criminal 

conduct. The laws that give individuals particular 

rights and legal standing within the criminal justice 

system use the term ‘victim.’ . . . ‘Survivor’ is a 

term used widely in service providing organizations 

to recognize the strength and courage it takes to 

overcome victimization.’’ See Training & Tech. 

Assistance Ctr., Off. for Victims of Crime, U.S. Dep’t 

of Just., Human Trafficking Task Force e-Guide, 

https://www.ovcttac.gov/taskforceguide/eguide/1- 

understanding-human-trafficking/13-victimcentered-approach/(last visited June 20, 2022). In 

this final rule, the Bureau is using the term 

Continued 

I. Summary of the Final Rule 

The Bureau is adopting several 

amendments to Regulation V to 

implement new section 605C of the Fair 

Credit Reporting Act (FCRA),1 added by 

the National Defense Authorization Act 

for Fiscal Year 2022 (2022 NDAA).2 In 

brief, section 605C provides that a 

consumer reporting agency may not 

furnish a consumer report containing 

any adverse item of information 

concerning a consumer that resulted 

from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking if the 

consumer has provided trafficking 

documentation to the consumer 

reporting agency.3 Under section 605C, 

the Bureau is required to issue 

implementing regulations within 180 

days of the enactment of the 2022 

NDAA. Section 605C is effective 30 days 

after the Bureau issues its final 

implementing regulations. 

The Bureau is amending Regulation V 

as follows: 

• Create new section 1022.142 in 

subpart O, the subpart on miscellaneous 

duties of consumer reporting agencies, 

to add the provisions implementing 

section 605C; 

• Apply the new section to any 

‘‘consumer reporting agency’’ as defined 

in section 603(f) of the FCRA, namely 

nationwide consumer reporting 

agencies, nationwide specialty 

consumer reporting agencies, and all 

other consumer reporting agencies; 

• Define terms including, in 

particular, ‘‘trafficking documentation,’’ 

‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons,’’ 

‘‘sex trafficking,’’ and ‘‘victim of 

trafficking’’; 

• Clarify that ‘‘trafficking 

documentation’’ includes certain 

determinations made by a nongovernmental organization or member of 

a human trafficking task force when 

authorized by a Federal, State, or Tribal 

governmental entity, and that, for 

purposes of the new section, 

documentation by a State governmental 

entity includes documentation at both 

the State and local level; 

• Permit a consumer to self-attest as 

a victim of trafficking if the document 

or an accompanying document is signed 

or certified by a Federal, State, or Tribal 

governmental entity, a court of 

competent jurisdiction, or the 

representatives of these entities; 

• Clarify that a document filed in a 

court of competent jurisdiction is an 

acceptable determination that a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking 

where: (1) a central issue in the case is 

whether the consumer is a victim of 

trafficking; and (2) where the court has 

conducted an initial review of the 

victim’s claim for purposes of a motion 

to dismiss or motion for summary 

judgment and the result is in favor of 

the victim; and 

• Establish procedures explaining 

how consumers should submit the 

required documentation to consumer 

reporting agencies, what actions a 

consumer reporting agency must 

perform when it receives that 

documentation, the limited 

circumstances under which a consumer 

reporting agency may ask for additional 

information, written policies and 

procedures, and recordkeeping 

requirements to monitor compliance. 

II. Background 

A. Trafficking in the United States 

According to the United States 

Department of State (State Department), 

in the United States human traffickers 

compel victims to engage in commercial 

sex and to work in legal and non-legal 

industries and sectors, including, for 

example, agriculture, janitorial services, 

construction, landscaping, restaurants, 

factories, child care, care for persons 

with disabilities, domestic work, salon 

services, massage parlors, peddling and 

begging, and drug smuggling and 

distribution.4 As the State Department 

has noted, it is difficult to find reliable 

statistics related to human trafficking for 

a number of reasons, including the 

hidden nature of the crime and barriers 

to identifying victims of trafficking and 

sharing information about them.5

Congress enacted the first significant 

Federal legislation addressing human 

trafficking in 2000. The Trafficking 

Victims Protection Act of 2000 6 (TVPA) 

established the ‘‘three Ps’’ framework 

for combating human trafficking by 

providing increased protections for 

victims, enhanced tools to prosecute 

perpetrators of trafficking, and 

additional resources for prevention.7

Among other things, the TVPA added 

new criminal provisions prohibiting 

‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons.’’ 

This term includes two components of 

human trafficking defined to include 

sex trafficking of children or by force, 

fraud, or coercion of adults, as well as 

forced labor trafficking with respect to 

involuntary servitude, peonage, debt 

bondage, or slavery, commonly referred 

to as ‘‘sex trafficking’’ and ‘‘labor 

trafficking,’’ respectively.8 Since 2000, 

Congress has reauthorized the TVPA on 

several occasions and continued to 

dedicate additional tools and resources 

to the fight against trafficking on a 

regular basis, including the creation and 

funding of the National Human 

Trafficking Hotline.9

Efforts by the United States 

Government to respond to the needs of 

victims of trafficking recognize that 

victims have both immediate and 

longer-term needs, including the need to 

improve financial stability to support 

their long-term independence.10

Adverse consumer report information 

resulting from having been trafficked 

can reduce the ability of victims 11 to 


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‘‘victim’’ because that is the wording of section 

6102 of the 2022 NDAA. 

12 Guimond v. Trans Union Credit Info. Co., 45 

F.3d 1329, 1333 (9th Cir. 1995). 

13 15 U.S.C. 1681(b). 

14 12 CFR part 1022. 

15See note 2 supra. 

16See 87 FR 20771 (Apr. 8, 2022). 

17 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 

Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), Public Law 111– 

203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). 

18 Id. § 1022(b)(1), 124 Stat. 1980 (codified at 12 

U.S.C. 5512(b)(1)). 

19 Id. § 1061(b)(5)(A), 124 Stat. 2037 (codified at 

12 U.S.C. 5581(b)(5)(A)). Section 1002(12)(F) of the 

Dodd-Frank Act designates most of the FCRA 

(codified at 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) as an 

‘‘enumerated consumer law’’ except with respect to 

sections 615(e) and 628 (codified at 15 U.S.C. 

1681m(e), 1681w). Dodd-Frank Act § 1002(12)(F), 

124 Stat. 1957 (codified at 12 U.S.C. 5481(12)(F)). 

20 Dodd-Frank Act § 1088, 124 Stat. 2086 

(codified at 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.). 

21 Id. § 1088(a)(10)(E), 124 Stat. 2090 (codified at 

15 U.S.C. 1681s(e)). 

take basic steps to obtain housing and 

employment and to move toward greater 

financial stability and independence. 

B. The Fair Credit Reporting Act 

The FCRA, enacted in 1970 and 

significantly amended in 1996, 2003, 

2010, and 2018, regulates consumer 

reporting. It was enacted to protect 

consumers by preventing the 

transmission of inaccurate information 

in consumer reports and establishing 

confidential and responsible credit 

reporting practices.12 The FCRA’s 

statutory scheme was designed to 

ensure that consumer reporting agencies 

adopt reasonable procedures for meeting 

the needs of commerce in a manner 

which is fair and equitable to consumers 

and protects the confidentiality, 

accuracy, relevancy, and proper 

utilization of consumer information.13

Together with its implementing 

regulation, Regulation V,14 the FCRA 

creates a regulatory framework for 

furnishing, using, and disclosing 

information in reports associated with 

credit, insurance, employment, and 

other decisions made about consumers. 

In doing so, the FCRA and Regulation V 

impose obligations on entities that 

qualify as ‘‘consumer reporting 

agencies.’’ They also impose obligations 

on those who use consumer report 

information or furnish information to 

consumer reporting agencies 

(furnishers). 

C. The National Defense Authorization 

Act for Fiscal Year 2022 

Section 6102 of the 2022 NDAA 

amended the FCRA by inserting a new 

section 605C, based on an earlier bill 

known as the Debt Bondage Repair 

Act.15 Section 605C(b) provides that a 

consumer reporting agency may not 

furnish a consumer report containing 

any adverse item of information 

concerning a consumer that resulted 

from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking if the 

consumer has provided trafficking 

documentation to the consumer 

reporting agency. As described in more 

detail in the section-by-section analysis 

below, section 605C(a) provides 

statutory definitions for a number of the 

terms, including from the TVPA. 

Section 605C(c)(1) directs the Bureau to 

issue implementing rules within 180 

days of enactment, and section 

605C(c)(2) mandates that the rules must 

establish a method by which consumers 

must submit trafficking documentation 

to consumer reporting agencies. 

III. Summary of the Rulemaking 

Process 

On April 8, 2022, the Bureau 

published a proposed rule in the 

Federal Register to implement section 

605C.16 The comment period ended on 

May 9, 2022. In response to the 

proposal, the Bureau received over 60 

comments from survivors of trafficking, 

consumers, consumer groups, antitrafficking advocacy groups, industry 

trade associations, and others. 

Many commenters expressed general 

support for the proposed rule, 

discussing, for example, the importance 

of section 605C’s goal of helping victims 

of trafficking recover financially. Some 

commenters expressed general support 

for the proposed rule and stated that 

they believed the proposal would help 

victims regain access to credit, 

employment, housing, bank accounts, 

utilities, and other services. The Bureau 

also received requests from commenters 

to alter, clarify, or remove specific 

provisions of the proposed rule, with 

some comments focusing on issues 

relating to potential fraud or abuse and 

others focusing on revisions that would 

permit more consumers to take 

advantage of the proposed amendments. 

As discussed in more detail below, the 

Bureau has considered these comments 

in adopting this final rule. 

IV. Legal Authority 

The Bureau is issuing this final rule 

pursuant to its authority under the 

FCRA, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street 

Reform and Consumer Protection Act 

(Dodd-Frank Act),17 and section 6102 of 

the 2022 NDAA. 

A. Dodd-Frank Act Section 1022(b) and 

the FCRA 

Section 1022(b)(1) of the Dodd-Frank 

Act authorizes the Bureau to prescribe 

rules as may be necessary or appropriate 

to enable the Bureau to administer and 

carry out the purposes and objectives of 

the Federal consumer financial laws, 

and to prevent evasions thereof.18

Effective July 21, 2011, section 1061 of 

the Dodd-Frank Act transferred to the 

Bureau the rulemaking and certain other 

authorities of the Federal Trade 

Commission (FTC) and the prudential 

banking regulators (i.e., the Board of 

Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System (FRB), the Federal Deposit 

Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the 

National Credit Union Administration 

(NCUA), and the Office of the 

Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)) 

relating to specific ‘‘enumerated 

consumer laws’’ listed in the DoddFrank Act, including most rulemaking 

authority under the FCRA.19 Likewise, 

section 1088 of the Dodd-Frank Act 

made conforming amendments to the 

FCRA, transferring rulemaking authority 

under much of the FCRA to the 

Bureau.20 As amended by the DoddFrank Act, section 621(e) of the FCRA 

authorizes the Bureau to issue 

regulations as may be necessary or 

appropriate to administer and carry out 

the purposes and objectives of the 

FCRA, and to prevent evasions thereof 

or to facilitate compliance therewith.21

The Bureau is issuing this final rule 

pursuant to its authority under 

§ 1022(b)(1) of the Dodd-Frank Act and 

section 621(e) of the FCRA. 

B. The National Defense Authorization 

Act for Fiscal Year 2022 

Section 6102(a) of the 2022 NDAA 

directs the Bureau to issue a rule 

implementing the new section 605C. 

Section 6102(c) provides that the rule 

issued to implement section 605C shall 

be limited to preventing a consumer 

reporting agency from furnishing a 

consumer report containing any adverse 

item of information about a consumer 

(as such terms are defined, respectively, 

in section 603 of the FCRA (15 U.S.C. 

1681a)) that resulted from trafficking. 

V. Section-by-Section Analysis 

Section 1022.142 Prohibition on 

Inclusion of Adverse Information in 

Consumer Reporting in Cases of Human 

Trafficking 

142(a) Scope 

The Bureau proposed to apply the 

requirement to prohibit the furnishing 

of adverse items of information about 

victims of trafficking to any ‘‘consumer 

reporting agency’’ as defined in section 

603(f), as directed by section 6102(c) of 

the 2022 NDAA. Consistent with section 

6102(c) of the 2022 NDAA, the Bureau 

proposed to apply new § 1022.142 to 

any ‘‘consumer reporting agency’’ as 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 121 / Friday, June 24, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 37703 

22A list of many self-identified consumer 

reporting companies is available on the Bureau’s 

website at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ 

consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/ 

consumer-reporting-companies/companies-list/ 

(last visited June 20, 2022). 

23 15 U.S.C. 1681c–2(d). 

24See 12 CFR 1022.123. 

25See, e.g., N.Y. Dep’t of State, Address 

Confidentiality Program, https://dos.ny.gov/ 

address-confidentiality (last visited June 20, 2022) 

(explaining that New York’s address confidentiality 

program is available to victims of human 

trafficking). 

26Consumer reporting agencies could, for 

example, require consumers to provide a social 

security number or card issued by the Social 

Continued 

defined in section 603(f) of the FCRA. 

Thus, consistent with section 603(f), the 

requirement prohibiting a consumer 

reporting agency from furnishing any 

adverse items of information about a 

consumer that resulted from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking applies to all consumer 

reporting agencies, including the 

nationwide consumer reporting 

agencies, nationwide specialty 

consumer reporting agencies, and all 

other consumer reporting agencies such 

as those focused on employment 

screening, tenant screening, check and 

bank screening, personal property 

insurance, medical, low-income and 

subprime, supplementary reports, 

utilities, retail, and gaming.22

A few commenters addressed the 

proposed scope. Consumer advocate 

commenters generally supported 

applying the requirement to all 

consumer reporting agencies. However, 

one industry commenter suggested that 

the final rule should provide an 

exception for resellers, as defined by 

section 603(u) of the FCRA, that do not 

maintain a consumer file, similar to the 

exception from the requirement to block 

information resulting from identity theft 

in section 605B(d) of the FCRA. The 

commenter reasoned that these resellers 

do not maintain a file on consumers 

and, therefore, do not have the means to 

block such information for use in future 

consumer reports. 

For the reasons discussed below, the 

Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(a) as 

proposed. Section 6102(c) of the NDAA 

provides that any rule issued by the 

Bureau to implement section 605C 

applies to all consumer reporting 

agencies. Unlike the identity theft 

provision identified by the 

commenter,23 the FCRA does not except 

or exempt any types of consumer 

reporting agencies from this prohibition. 

Even if a reseller does not maintain a 

file on consumers, if the reseller has 

received a request to block information 

from a consumer, the reseller can 

comply by ensuring that any consumer 

report it provides does not contain items 

of adverse information requested by the 

consumer to be blocked. Thus, the 

Bureau declines to provide exceptions 

for any types of consumer reporting 

agencies. 

142(b) Definitions 

142(b)(1) Appropriate Proof of Identity 

Section 605C is silent regarding 

whether and how consumers must 

establish their identity when submitting 

trafficking documentation to a consumer 

reporting agency. The Bureau proposed 

to define ‘‘appropriate proof of identity’’ 

as proof of identity that meets the 

requirements in § 1022.123.24 This 

section, which concerns proof of 

identify for consumers regarding 

identity theft, fraud and active duty 

alerts, consumer report information 

blocks, and truncation of Social Security 

numbers, provides that consumer 

reporting agencies must develop and 

implement reasonable requirements 

specifying what information consumers 

must provide to constitute proof of 

identity. 

The Bureau received several 

comments supporting the proposed 

approach. Multiple commenters 

observed that trafficking survivors often 

lack documentation that is frequently 

requested for proof of identity, such as 

a driver’s license, bank account 

statements, or utility bills. Two 

commenters observed that many victims 

of trafficking may make use of State-run 

address confidentiality programs, which 

shield the actual addresses of victims of 

certain offenses in public records.25 For 

these reasons, several commenters 

insisted on the importance of requiring 

consumer reporting agencies to accept 

non-documentary means of proof of 

identity. 

A small number of comments 

recommended alterations to the 

definition. Some individual consumers 

and consumer groups called for the 

Bureau to describe a universal method 

to ensure all consumer reporting 

agencies are held to the same standard 

when identifying victims and proposed 

that the Bureau mandate the use of 

alternative methods of identification 

validation. One commenter stated that 

the Bureau should clarify Regulation V 

or provide other guidance to prohibit 

excessive requirements for 

identification in order to ensure that 

Congress’s intent to protect trafficking 

survivors is not undermined. This 

commenter emphasized that consumer 

reporting agencies currently demand 

unnecessary amounts of identification 

or reject a consumer’s proof for minor 

discrepancies, and that these demands 

are not commensurate with the risk of 

harm arising from misidentifying the 

consumer. Additionally, another 

consumer group suggested providing 

consumer reporting agencies with a safe 

harbor for reasonable proof of identity 

procedures to offset the adoption of 

conservative and inflexible procedures 

to mitigate criticism consumer reporting 

agencies are not rigorous enough in 

their proof of identity standards. 

For the reasons discussed below, the 

final rule adopts § 1022.142(b)(1) as 

proposed, with additional clarifying 

text. Given the particular needs and 

challenges of consumers, a universal, 

one-size-fits-all standard specified in 

detail by the Bureau may not be a 

workable solution. Section 1022.123 of 

Regulation V requires consumer 

reporting agencies to develop and 

implement ‘‘reasonable’’ requirements 

for what information consumers shall 

provide to constitute proof of identity 

that are sufficient to enable the 

consumer reporting agency to match 

consumers with their files and adjust 

the information to be commensurate 

with an identifiable risk of harm arising 

from misidentifying consumers. Section 

1022.123 describes these requirements 

with respect to section 605A (identity 

theft prevention and fraud and active 

duty alerts), section 605B (consumer 

report information blocks), and section 

609(a)(1) (truncation of Social Security 

numbers) of the FCRA. The final rule 

clarifies that, as used in § 1022.142, the 

requirements in § 1022.123 should be 

applied for purposes of section 605C. 

The Bureau recognizes that the 

reasonableness of proof of identity 

requirements depends on the context 

and may differ between consumers 

trying to resolve problems caused by, for 

example, identity theft and those who 

are victims of trafficking. The Bureau 

also recognizes the importance of 

matching consumers who are victims of 

trafficking with their files and adjusting 

information to be commensurate with 

an identifiable risk of harm arising from 

misidentifying the consumer. 

Accordingly, the Bureau is clarifying 

that the requirements in § 1022.123 

should be used for purposes of section 

605C and tailored to the needs of 

victims of trafficking for purposes of 

establishing a consumer’s identity. The 

Bureau expects consumer reporting 

agencies to explore and implement a 

risk-based approach to verifying a 

consumer’s identity through both 

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Security Administration, a certified or official copy 

of a birth certificate issued by the entity authorized 

to issue the birth certificate, or a copy of a driver’s 

license, an identification card issued by the motor 

vehicle administration, or any other government 

issued identification. 

27The Bureau encourages consumer reporting 

agencies to confer with consumer groups, antitrafficking advocacy groups and survivors of 

trafficking for information on the types of 

identification, including by non-documentary 

means, and confirmation questions a victim of 

trafficking could easily answer to prove their 

identity. Consumer reporting agencies should refer 

to the customer identification program 

requirements for banks in 31 CFR 1020.220 for 

examples. 

28Section 605C(a)(2) provides that the term 

‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons’’ has the 

same meaning given in section 103 of the TVPA, 

Pub. L. 106–386, 114 Stat. 1464, 1470, which is 

currently codified at 22 U.S.C. 7102(11). 

29Off. on Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Dep’t of 

Health & Human Servs., Fact Sheet: Human 

Trafficking, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/factsheet/resource/fshumantrafficking (last visited June 

20, 2022). 

30One commenter argued that the sex trafficking 

component of the definition of ‘‘severe forms of 

trafficking in persons’’ rendered the separate 

inclusion of victims of ‘‘sex trafficking’’ under this 

rule redundant and confusing. The Bureau 

disagrees, for the reasons explained in the sectionby-section analysis of § 1022.142(b)(7) below. 

31Section 605C(a)(2) provides the term ‘‘sex 

trafficking’’ has the same meaning given in section 

103 of the TVPA, Public Law 106–386, 114 Stat. 

1464, codified at 22 U.S.C. 7102. This definition 

was amended by section 108 of the Justice for 

Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, Public Law 114– 

22, 129 Stat. 227, 238–39. This definition is 

currently codified at 22 U.S.C. 7102(12). 

documentary’’ means.27 The Bureau 

will also monitor the identification 

procedures for victims of trafficking to 

ensure consumer reporting agencies are 

not applying excessive requirements for 

identification and that the standards 

protect the confidentiality and personal 

safety of survivors. Moreover, 

appropriate proof of identity for the 

purposes of this section requires 

consumer reporting agencies to develop 

reasonable requirements for victims of 

trafficking, recognizing the challenges 

many victims might face in establishing 

proof of identity by conventional 

methods used for other purposes. The 

Bureau expects consumer reporting 

agencies to develop standards specific 

to victims of trafficking such that 

Congress’s intent to protect survivors of 

trafficking is not undermined. 

142(b)(2) Consumer Report 

Proposed § 1022.142(b)(2) defined the 

term ‘‘consumer report’’ to have the 

same meaning as that provided in 

section 603(d) of the FCRA. The use of 

this definition is directed by section 

6102(c) of the 2022 NDAA which 

provides that the Bureau’s rule shall be 

limited to preventing a consumer 

reporting agency from furnishing a 

consumer report containing any adverse 

item of information about a consumer 

that resulted from trafficking as the 

terms are defined in section 603 of the 

FCRA. 

The Bureau did not receive any 

comments on proposed § 1022.142(b)(2) 

and is finalizing it as proposed. 

142(b)(3) Consumer Reporting Agency 

Proposed § 1022.142(b)(3) defined 

‘‘consumer reporting agency’’ to have 

the meaning provided in section 603(f) 

of the FCRA. The use of this definition 

is directed by section 6102(c) of the 

2022 NDAA. 

The Bureau did not receive any 

comments on proposed § 1022.142(b)(3) 

and is finalizing it as proposed. 

142(b)(4) Severe Forms of Trafficking in 

Persons 

Proposed § 1022.142(b)(4) adopted the 

definition of ‘‘severe forms of trafficking 

in persons’’ set forth in section 

605C(a)(2) from section 103 of the 

TVPA.28 Under that definition, the term 

‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons’’ 

means: 

(i) Sex trafficking in which a 

commercial sex act is induced by force, 

fraud, or coercion, or in which the 

person induced to perform such act has 

not attained 18 years of age; or 

(ii) The recruitment, harboring, 

transportation, provision, or obtaining 

of a person for labor or services, through 

the use of force, fraud, or coercion for 

the purpose of subjection to involuntary 

servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or 

slavery. 

The language in the first paragraph of 

this definition is commonly referred to 

as the ‘‘sex trafficking’’ component, and 

the language in the second paragraph is 

commonly referred to as the ‘‘labor 

trafficking’’ component.29

The Bureau received few comments 

on this proposed definition.30 One 

consumer group stated that there may be 

circumstances where this definition is 

overly narrow, arguing that all forms of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking 

should be included as ‘‘severe forms of 

trafficking in persons.’’ 

The Bureau is finalizing this 

definition as proposed. Section 

605C(a)(2) provides that the term 

‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons’’ 

has the meaning given in section 103 of 

the TVPA, which is the definition set 

out above and in the proposed rule. 

Consistent with the statute, the Bureau 

is adopting this definition in the final 

rule. 

142(b)(5) Sex Trafficking 

Proposed § 1022.142(b)(5) adopted the 

definition of ‘‘sex trafficking’’ set forth 

in section 605C(a)(2).31 Under that 

definition, the term ‘‘sex trafficking’’ 

means the recruitment, harboring, 

transportation, provision, obtaining, 

patronizing, or soliciting of a person for 

the purpose of a commercial sex act. 

The Bureau received one comment on 

this definition which is discussed in the 

section-by-section analysis of 

§ 1022.142(b)(7) below. 

142(b)(6) Trafficking Documentation 

Section 605C(a)(1) defines ‘‘trafficking 

documentation’’ as documentation of— 

a determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking, made by a Federal, 

State, or Tribal governmental entity, 

or—by a court of competent jurisdiction 

and documentation that identifies items 

of adverse information that should not 

be furnished by a consumer reporting 

agency because the items resulted from 

a severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking of which the consumer is 

the victim. The Bureau proposed to 

incorporate this statutory definition 

with certain modifications regarding 

documentation identifying a consumer 

who is a victim of trafficking involving 

a ‘‘court of a competent jurisdiction.’’ 

Proposed § 1022.142(b)(6)(i) described 

documentation requirements for a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking (victim 

determination) and proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii) described 

documentation requirements for 

identified adverse items of information. 

Accordingly, the Bureau is naming 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i) as ‘‘victim 

determination’’ and § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii) 

as ‘‘identified adverse items of 

information’’ to make it clear that 

‘‘trafficking documentation’’ under 

section 605C consists of two 

components: victim determinations and 

identified adverse items of information. 

Each component is discussed in the 

section-by-section analysis below. 

142(b)(6)(i) Victim Determination 

142(b)(6)(i)(A) 

Section 605C(a)(1)(A)(i) provides the 

term ‘‘trafficking documentation’’ means 

documentation of—a determination that 

a consumer is a victim of trafficking 

made by a Federal, State, or Tribal 

governmental entity. The Bureau 

proposed to adopt this statutory 

definition of ‘‘trafficking 

documentation.’’ Under this definition, 

a determination made by a Federal, 

State, or Tribal governmental entity in 

the form of documentation that a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking 


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32For example, HHS issues certification letters to 

foreign national adults who have experienced a 

severe form of trafficking in persons after receiving 

notification that the Department of Homeland 

Security (DHS) has granted the person a continued 

presence, a T visa, or that a bona fide T visa 

application has not been denied. This certification 

letter provides that foreign national adult victims of 

trafficking are eligible for certain Federal and State 

benefits (health insurance, housing, food assistance, 

cash assistance, Federal student financial aid). 

United States citizens and lawful permanent 

residents do not need a Certification Letter to access 

services and benefits available to victims of 

trafficking and such as a letter identifying persons 

as victims of trafficking is generally not provided 

to United States citizens or permanent residents. 

This information is available at https://

www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/victim-assistance/ 

certification (last visited June 20, 2022). 

33A map and list of OVC-funded human 

trafficking services and task forces is available on 

OVC’s website at https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/ 

human-trafficking/map (last visited June 20, 2022). 

HHS also provides funding to various organizations 

offering trafficking assistance to victims. A list of 

the grantees is available at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ 

otip/grants (last visited June 20, 2022). 

34Off. for Victims of Crime, U.S. Dept of Just., 

OVC Human Trafficking Program FAQs, at 

comment 33 ‘‘Can I provide services to a client who 

does not self-identify as a victim of human 

trafficking?’’, https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/humantrafficking/ovc-human-trafficking-program-faqs 

(last visited June 20, 2022). 

35As explained in more detail below, 

multidisciplinary task forces made up of local law 

enforcement agencies, victim service providers, and 

Federal and State investigative, enforcement, and 

regulatory agencies are a common approach to 

combatting human trafficking in many jurisdictions. 

would have satisfied the requirements 

in proposed § 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A). As 

noted in the proposed rule, the Bureau 

found through outreach that 

documentation directly identifying a 

person as a victim of trafficking is scarce 

and is primarily limited to foreign-born 

persons, a fact echoed by many 

commenters.32 The Bureau also learned 

that victims of trafficking are often not 

identified and thus many victims will 

not have documentation directly 

determining that they are a victim of 

trafficking. For these reasons, as 

discussed further below, the Bureau 

sought comment on multiple possible 

ways a consumer might be able to 

document a determination by a 

governmental entity that a consumer is 

a victim of trafficking. 

The Bureau has considered the 

comments and is adopting 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A), with revisions to 

provide that victim determinations 

include those made by certain nongovernmental entities and human 

trafficking task forces authorized by a 

Federal, State, or Tribal governmental 

entity to make such determinations and 

that documentation by a ‘‘State 

governmental entity’’ includes 

documentation at both the State and 

local level. 

Non-Governmental Organizations and 

Other Non-Governmental Sources. In 

the proposed rule, the Bureau noted 

programs in which government agencies 

grant money to certain organizations to 

assist victims of trafficking. The Bureau 

discussed how, for example, the Office 

for Victims of Crime (OVC) in the 

Department of Justice (DOJ) is the 

largest Federal funder of services for 

human trafficking victims in the United 

States.33 However, the Bureau 

understands this office does not make or 

document determinations as to who is a 

victim of trafficking. Instead, nongovernmental organizations that receive 

grants from the OVC to provide services 

to clients make determinations that 

individuals are victims of trafficking, in 

some cases even when the person does 

not self-identify as a victim.34 The 

Bureau sought comments about whether 

and how such non-governmental 

sources of information might be 

considered in making a determination 

that a consumer is a victim of trafficking 

under section 605C. Specifically, the 

Bureau asked for comments on whether 

entities that receive funding from a 

governmental entity, and are subject to 

the terms and conditions of a 

government program, may provide 

documentation in the form of a 

determination identifying a person as a 

victim of trafficking that would satisfy 

section 605C(a)(1)(A). 

Commenters were largely in favor of 

treating determinations that individuals 

are victims of trafficking made by nongovernmental sources receiving 

government money as determinations 

made by a governmental entity, with 

few exceptions. One consumer group 

commenter suggested that the Bureau 

should broaden the allowable categories 

of documentation to show that the 

consumer is a trafficking survivor. The 

commenter suggested that the Bureau 

promulgate a definition that includes 

documentation from governmentfunded organizations under section 

605C itself, or that the Bureau use its 

broad general rulemaking authority 

under section 621(e) to prescribe 

regulations as may be necessary or 

appropriate to administer and carry out 

the purposes and objectives of the 

FCRA. The commenter observed that 

trained professionals who work in these 

organizations are generally in the best 

position to speak with a client, 

understand their personal background 

and history, and assess whether the 

consumer is a victim of trafficking. An 

anti-trafficking advocacy group 

commenter stated that trafficking 

survivors may have no or extremely 

limited interactions with government 

agency personnel since traffickingspecific services are primarily 

outsourced to non-governmental 

organizations rather than administered 

by government agencies in the United 

States and that social service providers 

at non-governmental agencies regularly 

conduct trafficking assessments and are 

often better positioned to identify 

trafficking survivors. 

An industry group commenter agreed 

with the Bureau’s preliminary 

assessment discussed in the proposed 

rule that non-governmental sources 

might be best suited to provide support 

for a determination that a consumer is 

a victim as compared to a government 

agency or a court. However, the 

commenter noted the risk for potential 

fraud and suggested that the Bureau be 

cognizant of the fraudulent use of 

identity theft reports under section 605B 

of the FCRA. The commenter suggested 

that if the Bureau were to include 

determinations made by nongovernmental entities it should require 

that the entities be legitimate non-profit 

organizations supported by government 

funding subject to the terms and 

conditions of a government program and 

that these entities submit trafficking 

documentation in good faith on behalf 

of a victim with the permission and 

knowledge of the victim. The 

commenter further suggested that 

consumer reporting agencies should be 

provided with a way to verify that the 

entity is a legitimate non-profit 

organization and has the victim’s 

permission to act on the victim’s behalf 

by, for example, requiring these nongovernmental sources to provide notice 

to the Bureau which could be used by 

a consumer reporting agency for 

verification purposes. 

An individual commenter who 

regularly provides legal representation 

to victims of trafficking encouraged the 

Bureau to include human trafficking 

task force members 35 as entities that can 

provide a determination that a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking. The 

commenter stated that governmental 

entity personnel do not typically work 

directly with a consumer in the context 

of their victimization and that task force 

members—who usually include service 

providers that regularly screen and work 

closely with victims to provide housing, 

medical care, financial assistance, 

counseling, legal aid, and other recovery 

services—may be better positioned to 

attest to a consumer’s victim status. 

A national membership group 

representing prosecutors asked the 

Bureau to provide a broad definition of 

‘‘trafficking documentation’’ to 

encompass victims who may not yet 

have come into contact with the 


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36 22 U.S.C. 7105(b)(1)(F) (‘‘Nothing in this 

section may be construed to require United States 

citizens or lawful permanent residents who are 

victims of severe forms of trafficking to obtain an 

official certification from the Secretary of Health 

and Human Services in order to access any of the 

specialized services described in this subsection or 

any other Federal benefits and protections to which 

they are otherwise entitled.’’). 

37The Bureau notes that the TVPA also 

recognizes the important role of non-governmental 

organizations by requiring HHS and DOJ, in 

establishing a program to assist United States 

citizens and lawful permanent residents, to consult 

with non-governmental organizations that provide 

services to victims of severe forms of trafficking in 

the United States. See 22 U.S.C. 7105(f). 

38Nat’l Inst. of Just, Off. of Just. Programs, U.S. 

Dep’t of Just., Federally Backed Human Trafficking 

Task Force Model Yields Progress, and 

Opportunities for Continued Growth, https://

nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/federally-backed-humantrafficking-task-force-model-yields-progress (last 

visited June 20, 2022). 

39Off. of Just. Programs, U.S. Dep’t of Just., 

National Criminal Justice Reference Sheet (May 

2021), at 15, https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/ 

grants/300863.pdf. Other participants involved in 

task forces and viewed as integral to anti-trafficking 

work are non-government and non-profit 

organizations, coalition and community awareness 

groups, healthcare agencies, child welfare and 

family services, and housing and homeless 

agencies. 

40 Id. at 21. 

criminal justice system or with an 

appropriate service provider. The 

commenter recommended the Bureau 

allow for documentation that applies to 

instances when a victim may receive 

mental or medical care or evidence the 

person has been identified by law 

enforcement as a victim of trafficking in 

an investigation. This commenter noted 

that the burden of verifying the 

documented victim determinations 

should lie with the consumer reporting 

agency as the entity reviewing the 

consumer request to ensure that such 

victim service provider or law 

enforcement agency was in contact with 

the individual victim and stated the 

Bureau or the appropriate consumer 

reporting agency should ensure the 

identification of the victim is authentic. 

One anti-trafficking advocacy group 

commenter that receives grants from 

State and Federal programs suggested 

that a statement from a grantee 

organization confirming that a consumer 

seeking relief under this rule is 

receiving services as a human trafficking 

victim should qualify as a determination 

that the consumer is a victim of 

trafficking. This commenter also urged 

the Bureau to provide that documented 

referrals by a government entity to a 

program providing specialized services 

to human trafficking survivors should 

similarly qualify as documentation of 

trafficking victimization. 

One sex workers and anti-trafficking 

advocacy group stated that nongovernmental organizations should not 

be required to prepare certifications to 

be signed by governmental funding 

entities, because these organizations are 

not generally required to disclose the 

identity of victims and this would raise 

confidentiality concerns. This 

commenter mentioned that nongovernmental organizations may be 

prohibited from providing a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking because of preexisting statutory language concerning 

restrictions on certifications of United 

States citizens or lawful permanent 

residents who are victims of severe 

forms of trafficking.36 A large banking 

industry trade group did not specifically 

oppose including documentation from 

non-governmental entities receiving 

governmental funding, but 

recommended the Bureau advocate for 

the development of a compassionate 

and reliable means of providing 

documentation set forth in section 605C. 

The Bureau is finalizing 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) with certain 

modifications. The Bureau finds the 

definition of ‘‘trafficking 

documentation’’ includes a 

determination made by a Federal, State, 

or Tribal governmental entity and is 

adopting this definition by renumbering 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) to 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A)(1) for these 

governmental entities. The reference to 

a court of competent jurisdiction has 

been moved to § 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B), as 

discussed below in the section-bysection analysis. 

The Bureau created new 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A)(2) to clarify that 

trafficking documentation includes a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking made by a nongovernmental organization or member of 

a human trafficking task force, including 

victim service providers affiliated with 

the organization or task force, when 

authorized by a Federal, State, or Tribal 

governmental entity to make such a 

determination. 

The Bureau agrees that trained 

professionals providing services to 

victims of trafficking, including those 

affiliated with a trafficking task force, 

are often best suited to identify and 

make determinations that a person has 

been or is being trafficked.37 The Bureau 

understands that Federal, State, and 

Tribal governmental entities often rely 

on the expertise these non-governmental 

organizations—including multidisciplinary human trafficking forces— 

possess in making victim 

determinations. For instance, as of fiscal 

year 2020, there were over 47 multidisciplinary trafficking task forces using 

an enhanced collaborative model to 

combat human trafficking.38 OVC and 

the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the 

DOJ use this model to: (1) employ 

victim-centered approaches to 

identifying trafficking survivors; (2) 

provide services to victims of all forms 

of human trafficking; and (3) investigate 

and process all forms of trafficking. 

These task force stakeholders are 

usually law enforcement, prosecutors, 

victim services providers, and others at 

the local, State, and Federal levels,39

who work with victim service providers 

affiliated with the task forces to provide 

services to victims of trafficking such as 

counseling, housing, referral to medical 

services, and financial assistance.40

Typically, victims of trafficking are 

referred to victim service providers for 

services from medical providers, other 

victim service providers, law 

enforcement, and community 

organizations and members. Often these 

victim service providers will conduct an 

initial screening and assessment to 

determine whether the person has 

experienced human trafficking followed 

by performing a victim-centered 

comprehensive assessment used to 

identify services and assistance 

programs. Under this model, nongovernmental organizations or members 

in a human trafficking task force could 

provide an individual with a 

documented determination after an 

initial screening and assessment if 

authorized to do so by a Federal, State, 

or Tribal governmental entity. 

The Bureau concludes that the 

purpose of section 605C—to help 

survivors of human trafficking restore 

their credit and gain access to consumer 

financial products and services—is 

better served by providing in the final 

rule that non-governmental 

organizations and members in a human 

trafficking task force, including service 

providers affiliated with these entities, 

may make determinations that a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking if 

authorized to do so by a Federal, State, 

or Tribal governmental entity. This 

means that where a Federal, State, or 

Tribal governmental entity has 

authorized non-governmental 

organizations or members in a human 

trafficking task force to make a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking, documentation of 

that determination by one of these 

entities satisfies the trafficking 

documentation definition under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A). The Bureau 

interprets the authorization by Federal, 

State, or Tribal governmental entities as 

having effectively delegated authority to 

these non-governmental organizations 


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41 22 U.S.C. 7105(b)(1)(F). 

42See, e.g., Victims’ Rights & Restitution Act of 

1990, 42 U.S.C. 10607; Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 

18 U.S.C. 3771. In these Federal statutes and in 

some State laws, victims’ rights attach during an 

investigation (and independent of trial) and 

therefore rely on a law-enforcement determination, 

which is quite often made by a local governmental 

entity. 

43See, e.g., 23 Pa. Cons. Stat. sec. 5702(a) 

(requiring county agencies to report to law 

enforcement children whom they ‘‘identif[y] as 

being a sex trafficking victim’’ within 24 hours); Va. 

Code Ann. sec. 9.1–116.5 (creating a statewide Sex 

Trafficking Response Coordinator who is 

responsible for ‘‘creat[ing] a statewide plan for local 

and State agencies to identify and respond to 

victims of sex trafficking’’). 

and human trafficking task forces along 

with service providers affiliated with 

these entities. The Bureau concludes 

that victim determinations made by a 

non-governmental organization, human 

trafficking task force, or a nongovernmental-affiliated victim service 

provider in the form of identifying an 

individual as a victim of trafficking 

must be accepted by consumer reporting 

agencies if authorized to make such a 

determination by a Federal, State, or 

Tribal governmental entity. 

The final rule does not limit Federal, 

State, and Tribal governmental entities 

to authorizing only those nongovernmental entities and human 

trafficking task forces that receive 

funding from these governmental 

entities. Nor does the final rule 

prescribe how a Federal, State, or Tribal 

governmental entity may authorize nongovernmental organizations to make 

victim determinations, but certain 

factors such as whether nongovernmental organizations and human 

trafficking task forces receive 

government funding and are subject to 

the terms and conditions of a 

government program could be a factor 

evaluated by a governmental entity. To 

clarify, the final rule does not permit a 

non-governmental entity or human 

trafficking task force to provide an 

authorization to make a victim 

determination under this section for 

itself or another entity. Instead, the 

authorization must be made by a 

Federal, State, or Tribal governmental 

entity, and each governmental entity 

may establish their own criteria for 

making such authorizations. The Bureau 

has concluded that victim 

determinations made by a nongovernmental organization, human 

trafficking task force, or victim service 

provider affiliated with an organization 

or task force must be accepted by 

consumer reporting agencies if the 

entity has been authorized to make such 

a determination by a Federal, State, or 

Tribal governmental entity. 

The Bureau understands there may be 

concerns with non-governmental 

organizations or members of human 

trafficking task forces, including 

affiliated victim service providers, 

providing attestations or certifications to 

be signed by these entities because 

doing so may raise confidentiality 

concerns and these entities are not 

generally required to disclose the 

identity of victims. The final rule does 

not require governmental entities or 

non-governmental organizations to 

submit such documentation. Rather, the 

final rule permits a consumer to submit 

a victim determination from a 

governmental entity or a nongovernmental organization or human 

trafficking task force authorized by a 

governmental entity in order to block 

adverse items of information that 

resulted from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking. 

Moreover, under the final rule the 

decision to obtain a victim 

determination is with the victim and the 

final rule does not require or permit 

anyone to submit a victim 

determination to a consumer reporting 

agency without the permission of the 

victim. 

One commenter questioned whether 

non-governmental organizations may be 

prohibited from providing a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking because of preexisting statutory language concerning 

restrictions on certifications of United 

States citizens or lawful permanent 

residents who are victims of a severe 

form of trafficking in persons.41 The 

Bureau does not believe that this 

provision of the TVPA conflicts with 

section 605C or the final rule since 

section 605C, among other things, does 

not require an official certification from 

the Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS) in order to block adverse 

items of information from a consumer 

report that resulted from having been 

trafficked. 

The Bureau is adopting 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) under section 

605(c) as well as under its authority 

under section 621(e) of the FCRA, 

which authorizes the Bureau to 

prescribe regulations that promote 

accuracy and fairness in credit 

reporting, and under the general 

rulemaking authority granted the 

Bureau under § 1022(b)(1) of the DoddFrank Act. 

State governmental entity. The Bureau 

proposed treating documentation of a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking by a ‘‘State 

governmental entity’’ as including 

documentation created at either the 

State or local level. The Bureau noted 

that local law enforcement, as part of a 

local government, may have 

documentation of a determination 

identifying victims of trafficking, 

including, but not limited to, items in a 

police report. The Bureau noted that 

there are Federal and State victims’ 

rights acts in addition to Tribal codes 

that depend on a determination that a 

victim has been identified as such, 

including by Federal, State, Tribal, or 

local jurisdictions.42 The Bureau also 

noted that some State laws explicitly 

contemplate local entities making this 

determination for victims of sex 

trafficking which triggers various rights 

for the victim and obligations for the 

government under State and Federal 

law.43 The Bureau further noted, 

however, that the local entity may not 

always share that determination with 

State, Federal, or Tribal governmental 

entities and thus that some victims of 

trafficking would not be able to utilize 

such documentation. 

The Bureau solicited comments on 

whether it should interpret the phrase 

‘‘a determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking made by a Federal, 

State, or Tribal governmental entity’’ to 

mean any determination, including 

those made by local government 

officials, where a Federal, State or Tribal 

governmental entity could reasonably be 

construed as making a determination 

that a consumer is a victim of 

trafficking. The Bureau also sought 

comments concerning the nature of 

information on trafficking in the 

possession of local governments, the 

extent to which such information is or 

might usefully be shared with Federal, 

State, and Tribal governmental entities, 

and the sort of documentation generated 

by these governmental entities. 

Commenters were largely in favor of 

including documentation generated by 

local governmental entities. 

Specifically, one commenter stated that 

local governmental entities at all levels, 

including county and municipal law 

enforcement and prosecutors, are in as 

much of a position to identify victims of 

trafficking as State and Federal 

government entities. Another 

commenter agreed with the Bureau’s 

proposed treatment of local 

governmental entities and stated their 

belief that a police report could serve as 

an example of documentation 

establishing a person as a victim of 

trafficking. One association of State 

attorneys general expressed support for 

the Bureau’s proposed interpretation to 

include both State and local law 

enforcement agencies as entities that 

can make determinations of a victim’s 

status under State law because of their 


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44An evaluation of multi-disciplinary human 

trafficking task forces identified law enforcement as 

leading half of the task forces and as the most 

frequently cited referral stream to victim service 

providers. William Adams et al., Evaluation of the 

Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human 

Trafficking, Technical Report (May 2021), at 10, 14, 

22, https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/ 

300863.pdf. 

45Examples of court documents made by a court 

of competent jurisdiction could be a restitution 

order that provides a victim of trafficking with 

restitution after a criminal conviction or a criminal 

record relief court order (such as a vacatur, 

expungement, or sealing of records) where victims 

of trafficking may obtain an order to clear 

convictions of criminal offenses the victims were 

forced to commit. 

46 In the proposed rule, the Bureau stated an 

example of a document filed in a court of 

competent jurisdiction indicating a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking could be where victims of 

trafficking file suit against their traffickers where 

they identify as a victim of trafficking. A prior 

iteration of section 6102 of the 2022 NDAA in H.R. 

2332 (introduced in the 117th Congress) and S. 2040 

(introduced in the 117th Congress) provided that 

‘‘trafficking documentation’’ included 

‘‘documentation of . . . a determination by a court 

of competent jurisdiction that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking.’’ This language was 

subsequently changed and enacted into law to 

instead read ‘‘documentation of . . . by a court of 

competent jurisdiction.’’ 

collaboration on victim advocacy and 

enforcement work. 

A commenter representing banks 

expressed concern with treating a local 

governmental entity as ‘‘State 

governmental entity.’’ This commenter 

contended that the Bureau’s reference to 

treating documentation from local law 

enforcement, such as police reports, as 

a determination identifying victims of 

trafficking undermines and is contrary 

to the intent of the statute providing that 

consumer reports be accurate and 

reliable. 

The Bureau is finalizing its proposal 

that documentation of a determination 

that a consumer is a victim of trafficking 

made by a ‘‘State governmental entity’’ 

includes documentation created at 

either the State or local level. The 

Bureau finds that local law enforcement, 

as part of a local government, may have 

documentation of a determination 

identifying victims of trafficking, 

including, but not limited to, items in a 

police report. This is particularly 

relevant since there is not a uniform 

mechanism in place within most 

governmental entities to provide lawful 

permanent residents and United States 

citizens with a certification that a 

person is a victim of trafficking. In 

furtherance of assisting survivors of 

human trafficking in restoring their 

credit and obtaining access to consumer 

financial products, and the integral role 

of local law enforcement in the 

identification and investigation of sex 

trafficking, the Bureau concludes that it 

is imperative for local governments, 

including local law enforcement, to 

possess the ability to make documented 

victim determinations for purposes of 

this rule.44 This means victim 

determinations made by local 

governmental entities could include 

victim advocates within local 

prosecutorial or local law enforcement 

agencies and offices administering 

specific services for victims of 

trafficking, such as address 

confidentiality programs within State 

attorney general offices. 

The Bureau is concerned that a 

narrower definition could substantially 

limit the availability of documentation 

for victims of trafficking to submit to 

consumer reporting agencies. 

Interpreting documentation of a 

determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking by a ‘‘State 

governmental entity’’ to include local 

government entities will further the 

statutory goal of preventing consumer 

reporting agencies from furnishing 

consumer reports containing adverse 

items of information about a consumer 

that resulted from trafficking. 

The Bureau agrees with commenters 

that local law enforcement, as typically 

the lead investigative agency, is often in 

the best position to identify victims of 

sex trafficking. In response to comments 

and to facilitate compliance, the Bureau 

interprets final § 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A)(1) 

as providing that documented victim 

determinations made by a local 

governmental entity must be treated as 

made by a State governmental entity for 

purposes of this rule. 

In adopting this interpretation, the 

Bureau concludes that the final rule will 

promote the purposes of section 605C 

by ensuring victims are able to block 

adverse items of information resulting 

from trafficking and further promote the 

accuracy and reliability of consumer 

reports. The Bureau foresees victim 

determinations made by local 

governments as likely being initiated by 

local law enforcement after having 

interviewed victims of trafficking when 

receiving referrals (from hotlines, tip 

lines, other law enforcement agencies, 

victim service providers, other 

government agencies), performing sting 

operations, or conducting routine traffic 

stops. The Bureau’s adoption of this 

interpretation is further supported by its 

regulatory authority under section 

621(e) of the FCRA, which authorizes 

the Bureau to prescribe regulations that 

promote accuracy and fairness in credit 

reporting, and the general rulemaking 

authority granted under section 

1022(b)(1) of the Dodd-Frank Act. 

142(b)(6)(i)(B) 

Section 605C(a)(1)(A)(ii) provides the 

term ‘‘trafficking documentation’’ means 

documentation of—by a court of 

competent jurisdiction. The Bureau 

stated in the proposal it was 

incorporating this statutory definition of 

‘‘trafficking documentation’’ with 

certain clarifying interpretations 

regarding documentation identifying a 

consumer who is a victim of trafficking 

involving a ‘‘court of competent 

jurisdiction,’’ and to clarify that the 

documentation may consist of one or 

more documents as long as the 

collective documentation satisfies the 

definition. To implement this, the 

Bureau proposed to include two 

categories of documentation involving a 

‘‘court of competent jurisdiction’’ in the 

definition of ‘‘trafficking 

documentation.’’ The first category of 

documents concerning a ‘‘court of 

competent jurisdiction’’ is 

documentation, in the form of a 

determination, that the consumer is a 

victim of trafficking made by a court of 

competent jurisdiction in proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A).45 The second 

category is documentation consisting of 

documents filed in a court of competent 

jurisdiction indicating that a consumer 

is a victim of trafficking in proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B).46 The Bureau 

sought comments on whether it should 

clarify in the regulation what 

documents filed in a court of competent 

jurisdiction indicating that a consumer 

is a victim of trafficking means. For 

example, the Bureau asked if a filing in 

a court or a court opinion in which a 

consumer’s status as a victim of 

trafficking is an accepted fact, but not 

the central issue in the case, could be 

considered a ‘‘determination’’ sufficient 

to satisfy section 605C(a)(1)(A)(ii) and 

whether such an interpretation would 

allow more victims of trafficking to 

make use of the procedure created by 

section 605C. 

Many commenters supported 

including a broad variety of court 

documents in the definition, including 

court documents in which a consumer’s 

status as a victim of trafficking is an 

accepted fact, but not the central issue 

in the case. Several industry 

commenters, however, expressed 

concern that the approach would permit 

consumers to block adverse items of 

information based only on unverified 

allegations. One commenter stated the 

indicator of reliability would be 

significantly higher if the document has 

to be filed under penalty of perjury, 

such as verified petitions, affidavits, 

deposition transcripts, and trial 

transcripts. Other commenters 

expressed concerns about perpetrators 


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of crimes using this provision to block 

accurate criminal record information 

relied upon by potential employers and 

landlords. 

The Bureau is finalizing 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B) by modifying the 

regulatory text concerning language 

associated with a court of competent 

jurisdiction. First, the category of court 

documentation, in the form of a 

determination, that the consumer is a 

victim of trafficking made by a court of 

competent jurisdiction in proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) is moved to 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B). The Bureau 

believes these court documents could 

include criminal record relief orders 

(sealing, expungement, or vacatur of 

records), civil suit decisions involving 

human trafficking, and restitution 

orders. Due to the sensitive nature 

involving victims of trafficking and 

because the Bureau does not believe the 

details surrounding one’s victimization 

must be provided to consumer reporting 

agencies, consumer reporting agencies 

must accept these documents with 

redactions that omit any details that 

exceed what is sufficient to confirm an 

individual has been identified as a 

victim of trafficking. 

The second category of court 

documentation in proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B) consisted of 

documents filed in a court of competent 

jurisdiction indicating that a consumer 

is a victim of trafficking. After reviewing 

the comments, the Bureau is modifying 

language in proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B) to clarify 

documents filed in a court of competent 

jurisdiction where a central issue in the 

case is whether the consumer is a victim 

of trafficking and the court has, at a 

minimum, affirmed the consumer’s 

claim either by accepting certain pieces 

of evidence which are assumed to be 

true or finding that there is no genuine 

dispute as to any material fact 

supporting a judgment in favor of the 

victim as a matter of law constitutes an 

acceptable victim determination under 

section 605C. The Bureau believes this 

could include instances where victims 

of trafficking sue their traffickers using 

private right of action provisions under 

Federal or State victim protection laws 

where the court has conducted an initial 

review of the victim’s claim for 

purposes of a motion to dismiss or 

motion for summary judgment and the 

result is in favor of the victim. This 

approach could also allow more victims 

the opportunity to obtain a victim 

determination even in instances where 

the civil suit was dismissed without 

prejudice or not pursued because of 

intimidation by the trafficker against the 

victim. 

The Bureau is not interpreting 

documentation filed in a court of 

competent jurisdiction to include court 

documents filed where the consumer’s 

status as a victim of trafficking is not a 

central issue in the case. However, the 

Bureau believes that in many such cases 

a consumer would be able to provide 

documentation obtained by other 

means. For example, court records 

where a trafficker is being criminally 

prosecuted for a crime other than for 

trafficking, but where the consumer is 

identified as a victim of trafficking 

would not meet the definition under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(B). However, a 

consumer often may instead be able to 

obtain a copy of the law enforcement 

affidavit or other documented 

statements from a governmental entity 

or entity with delegated authority from 

a governmental entity filed in the 

criminal court proceedings on behalf of 

the prosecution which would then 

constitute a victim determination made 

by a governmental entity under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A). 

One of the primary purposes of 

section 605C is to assist victims of 

trafficking by restoring their credit and 

helping them obtain access to consumer 

financial products and services which 

will prevent revictimization and place 

the victims on a path to financial 

stability. The Bureau is aware that some 

victims, given the nature of their 

victimization and subsequent 

involvement in crimes they were forced 

to commit as a result of having been 

trafficked, are apprehensive to interact 

with and obtain relief from a 

governmental entity or a court. The 

Bureau finds that accepting documents 

filed in a court of competent jurisdiction 

where the consumer’s status as a victim 

of trafficking is a central issue and the 

court’s actions after an initial review of 

the consumer’s claim passes a level of 

verification from the court will prevent 

a consumer reporting agency from 

furnishing a consumer report containing 

adverse information about a consumer 

that resulted from trafficking. This 

provision of the rule is also supported 

by the Bureau’s regulatory authority 

under section 621(e) of the FCRA, 

which authorizes the Bureau to 

prescribe regulations that promote 

accuracy and fairness in credit 

reporting, and on the general 

rulemaking authority granted the 

Bureau under section 1022(b)(1) of the 

Dodd-Frank Act. Therefore, the Bureau 

concludes that documentation filed in a 

court of competent jurisdiction where 

the consumer’s status as a victim of 

trafficking is a central issue and the 

court has, at a minimum, affirmed the 

consumer’s claim either by accepting 

certain pieces of evidence which are 

assumed to be true or finding that the 

there is no genuine dispute as to any 

material fact supporting a judgment in 

favor of the victim as a matter of law 

satisfies section 605C. 

142(b)(6)(i)(C) 

The Bureau is adding 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(C) to the final rule to 

provide that a signed statement by the 

consumer attesting that the consumer is 

a victim of trafficking is an acceptable 

victim determination if such statement 

or an accompanying document is signed 

or certified by a representative of an 

entity described in § 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) 

and (B). In the proposed rule, the 

Bureau did not propose a provision to 

describe the specific types of documents 

that could serve as a determination that 

a consumer is a victim of trafficking. 

However, the Bureau asked for feedback 

on whether an attestation or 

documentation submitted to a Federal, 

State, or Tribal governmental entity by 

a person who self-identifies as a victim 

of trafficking, or by another person or 

entity acting on that person’s behalf, 

may constitute a documented 

determination. The Bureau also sought 

comment on the types of documents 

that could serve as a ‘‘determination 

that a consumer is a victim of 

trafficking.’’ The Bureau stated it has 

not identified any standard 

‘‘determination’’ procedures or forms in 

use by any governmental entities or 

courts concerning human trafficking for 

persons who are not foreign national 

adults (i.e., United States citizens or 

lawful permanent residents). 

The Bureau received few comments 

on whether to include a person’s selfattestation as a victim of trafficking or 

an attestation by another person or 

entity acting on that person’s behalf. 

One anti-trafficking organization 

deemed self-attestation the best 

approach while providing the least 

restrictions and the most 

confidentiality. A consumer advocacy 

group and a group focused on assisting 

victims of trafficking, domestic 

violence, and sexual violence requested 

the Bureau permit self-attestation of 

trafficking if an authorized third party 

(such as an employee in a governmentfunded organization that serves 

survivors, a government employee, or 

court personnel) signs off on the selfattestation after performing an interview 

or assessment. This commenter also 

suggested that in the alternative, the 

Bureau could provide that the 

authorized third party may write a 

simple attestation/certification 

identifying the name of the survivor and 


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47U.S. Customs & Immigr. Servs., Dep’t of 

Homeland Sec., Form I–914 Application for T 

Nonimmigrant Status, Supp. B, Declaration of Law 

Enforcement Officer for Victim of Trafficking in 

Persons (Dec. 2, 2021), https://www.uscis.gov/sites/ 

default/files/document/forms/i-914supb.pdf. 

48For example, one commenter referenced the 

following documents as consisting of victim 

determinations: (1) Certification Letters (issued by 

HHS); (2) Child Eligibility Letters (issued by HHS)); 

(3) Continued Presence (issued by DHS); (4) T Visas 

(issued by United States Citizenship and 

Immigration Services); (5) Bona fide T Visa 

application; (6) U Visas with a Form I–918 

Supplemental B filled out indicating that the victim 

experienced human trafficking; (7) Restitution 

orders; (8) Crime victim compensation; (9) Criminal 

record relief court orders; (10) Civil suit decisions 

related to human trafficking (such as suits brought 

by victims of trafficking through the TVPA’s private 

right of action provisions); and (11) Documents 

issued by State government agencies (such as a 

Notice of Confirmation as a Human Trafficking 

Victim in New York State issued by New York 

State’s Office of Temporary and Disability 

Assistance). 

that the survivor is a victim of 

trafficking. 

An industry group representing banks 

urged the Bureau to not permit selfattestations for purposes of establishing 

a consumer is a victim of trafficking. 

This commenter stated that Congress 

did not provide for an attestation in 

section 605C, unlike section 605B in 

reporting identity theft, and that the text 

of section 605C requires the victim 

determinations to be made by a 

‘‘Federal, State, or Tribal governmental 

entity.’’ The commenter also noted that 

allowing a person to self-attest to being 

a victim of trafficking or someone acting 

on their behalf may lead to abuse by 

permitting persons who fraudulently 

self-identify as victims of trafficking to 

block accurate information. 

A consumer group and anti-trafficking 

organization requested the Bureau 

provide a specific non-exhaustive list of 

example documents that would prove a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking. The 

consumer group stated that if an 

enumerated list of acceptable 

documentation is not provided then the 

rule may not be sufficiently concrete 

and clear to require the consumer 

reporting agencies to implement section 

605C’s protections effectively. The 

commenter urged the Bureau to clarify 

that a victim who does not have such 

documents would still qualify for relief 

under section 605C by providing 

alternative forms of documentation. 

Another commenter recommended the 

Bureau create a form similar to a 

declaration of a law enforcement officer 

used to provide that a person is a victim 

of trafficking.47 The commenter also 

urged the Bureau to create a sample 

attestation form that can be used by 

organizations that receive government 

funding, so that the organizations will 

have a template document for producing 

the trafficking documentation required 

by the rule. An industry group also 

requested examples of acceptable 

‘‘victim determinations’’ and 

recommended the Bureau issue an 

interim final rule with an open 

comment period to allow industry 

members to continue to provide 

feedback on this point, which will 

further help victims in identifying 

appropriate documentation to be 

provided to consumer reporting 

agencies. A commenter representing a 

group of anti-trafficking organizations 

stated victims of trafficking should be 

able to obtain documentation through 

State human trafficking coordinators or 

by showing that they have sought a 

benefit or access to a program that they 

qualify for on the basis of their 

victimization (e.g., crime victim 

compensation or address confidentiality 

programs). 

The Bureau has considered the 

comments and is modifying the final 

rule by permitting a consumer to selfattest as a victim of trafficking if the 

statement or an accompanying 

document is signed or certified by a 

Federal, State, or Tribal governmental 

entity or court of competent 

jurisdiction, or representative of an 

entity authorized by a Federal, State, or 

Tribal governmental entity or court of 

competent jurisdiction to provide victim 

determinations. Specifically, 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(C) provides that a 

victim determination includes 

documentation of a signed statement by 

the consumer attesting that the 

consumer is a victim of trafficking if 

such statement is also signed by a 

representative of an entity described in 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) or (B). The Bureau 

concludes that the statute requires only 

that the consumer provide 

documentation of a determination that 

they are a victim of trafficking made by 

a Federal, State, or Tribal governmental 

entity or documentation of or by a court 

of competent jurisdiction. For purposes 

of submitting trafficking documentation 

to consumer reporting agencies, 

consumers are not required to reveal the 

details of their trafficking to consumer 

reporting agencies since doing so may 

cause some consumers to suffer 

additional harm. Therefore, the Bureau 

concludes that so long as a selfattestation made by a consumer is 

supported by a determination made by 

a Federal, State, or Tribal governmental 

entity or a court of competent 

jurisdiction, as described in 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A) or (B), it satisfies 

the trafficking documentation 

requirement as provided by 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(C). 

The Bureau is finalizing 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i) without adding to the 

text of the regulation a non-exhaustive 

list of documents that serve as a 

‘‘determination that a consumer is a 

victim of trafficking’’ or a model selfattestation form. However, the Bureau 

notes that a victim may self-attest by 

making a statement to the effect that ‘‘I 

attest that I am a victim of trafficking for 

purposes of section 605C of the Fair 

Credit Reporting Act. The signature of 

[NAME], employee of 

[ORGANIZATION] certifies this 

statement.’’ The Bureau believes this 

approach affords the greatest flexibility 

to victims of trafficking seeking to 

gather and submit to consumer 

reporting agencies the documentation of 

determinations specified in section 

605C(a)(1)(A). The Bureau may consider 

issuing interpretations in the future that 

provide specific examples to provide 

clarity on the types of ‘‘determinations’’ 

that establish a consumer is a ‘‘victim of 

trafficking,’’ such as by issuing advisory 

opinions or consumer education 

materials. To clarify, the Bureau’s 

decision to not provide an exhaustive 

list of example documents or a selfattestation form does not mean victims 

of trafficking should not submit or 

consumer reporting agencies should not 

accept certain documents referenced by 

commenters to establish a victim 

determination under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i)(A).48 The Bureau 

encourages victims of trafficking to 

utilize pre-existing documentation that 

may be accessible based on their 

participation in certain victim 

assistance programs. 

142(b)(6)(ii) Identified Adverse Items of 

Information 

In the proposed rule, the Bureau 

incorporated section 605(C)(a)(1)(B), the 

second component of ‘‘trafficking 

documentation,’’ into proposed 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). Section 

605(C)(a)(1)(B) provides that ‘‘trafficking 

documentation’’ is documentation that 

identifies items of adverse information 

that should not be furnished by a 

consumer reporting agency because the 

items resulted from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking 

of which the consumer is a victim. 

The Bureau did not propose to 

prescribe what an ‘‘adverse item of 

information’’ in a consumer report is, 

because it may vary depending on the 

weight each individual user of a 

consumer report gives to certain items 

of information as well as the consumer’s 

individual circumstances. The Bureau 

stated this information could include 

the evaluation of factors enumerated in 

section 603(d) of the FCRA on consumer 


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49 15 U.S.C. 1679a(3); 15 U.S.C. 1679a(3)(B)(i). 

reports such as: credit worthiness, credit 

standing, credit capacity, character, 

general reputation, personal 

characteristics, or mode of living. The 

Bureau also stated that victims of 

trafficking may wish to have items of 

information blocked from their 

consumer report that are the result of 

trafficking because they do not believe 

those items accurately reflect them even 

if the item does not result in, for 

example, a lower credit score or less 

favorable evaluation by a user. In the 

proposed rule, the Bureau provided 

examples of adverse items of 

information that include records 

containing derogatory information, such 

as payment delinquencies or defaults 

reported to a consumer reporting agency 

on a loan or large purchase, records of 

coerced debt where a loan is taken out 

by a victim of trafficking under force or 

threat, records of criminal arrests and 

convictions, and records of evictions or 

non-payment of rent. 

Consumer and anti-trafficking groups 

as well as individual commenters 

largely supported the proposed rule’s 

approach of allowing consumers to 

determine which items of adverse 

information resulted from trafficking 

without requiring further 

documentation connecting the 

information to trafficking. Numerous 

individuals, anti-trafficking, and 

consumer groups urged the Bureau to 

permit victims to identify adverse items 

of information that could have been 

reported to consumer reporting agencies 

during and after the period during 

which a victim was under the control of 

the trafficker and that resulted from 

having been trafficked. A consumer 

group stated that consumer reporting 

agencies often reject disputes from 

consumers if a family member, attorney, 

or third party assists the consumer. This 

consumer group urged the Bureau to 

require consumer reporting agencies to 

accept requests from third parties using 

a document authorizing the third party 

to act on a consumer’s behalf along with 

identification of the third party such as 

a driver’s license. An anti-trafficking 

advocacy group suggested that 

consumer reporting agencies should be 

required to identify which information 

would be deemed adverse and required 

to block that information since they are 

likely in a better position to evaluate 

what is adverse information than the 

victim of trafficking. 

Several industry groups expressed 

concerns, arguing that a broad, vague 

definition might lead to inconsistent 

application by consumer reporting 

agencies and that certain factual items 

should not be deemed ‘‘adverse items of 

information,’’ such as non-expunged 

criminal records. The commenters also 

urged the Bureau to require consumers 

to specify the time period during which 

they were trafficked and state the reason 

why each item resulted from trafficking. 

The commenters also stated that 

allowing consumers to identify items of 

adverse information and prohibiting 

consumer reporting agencies from 

evaluating whether those identified 

items resulted from trafficking may 

permit fraud. These commenters asked 

the Bureau to consider limiting the 

ability to submit trafficking 

documentation resulting from 

trafficking to the victim, an attorney 

acting in the capacity as attorney for the 

victim, or an individual employed by a 

non-profit counseling agency approved 

by the Bureau and acting under a power 

of attorney for the victim in order to 

avoid potential fraud and requests 

submitted without the victim’s 

authorization or knowledge. 

An industry group commented that a 

consumer who requests criminal records 

to be blocked should provide a court 

order consisting of a determination that 

a consumer was a victim of a severe 

form of trafficking in persons at the time 

the crime was committed. This 

commenter also encouraged the Bureau 

to exclude from being blocked 

information that the consumer has 

identified as resulting from trafficking 

where the information being reported 

relates to the revocation or failure to 

renew a professional license or 

certification by a State entity and the 

reason for the revocation or failure to 

renew will not be evident from the 

records. A few industry groups asked 

the Bureau to create a form to include 

the adverse items of information along 

with contact information, a description 

of the trafficking, list of adverse items 

with a statement on how each item 

resulted from trafficking, when the 

trafficking occurred, and a pre-printed 

statement that the consumer is making 

the statement under penalty of perjury. 

The Bureau is adopting 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii) with revisions to 

clarify that, in addition to the consumer, 

a representative designated by the 

consumer may identify items of adverse 

information that should not be 

furnished by a consumer reporting 

agency and that the consumer must 

provide a preferred contact method 

relating to the consumer’s request to 

block adverse information that resulted 

from trafficking. The text below in this 

section-by-section analysis also 

discusses the Bureau’s response to 

comments asking the Bureau to define 

what an ‘‘adverse item of information’’ 

in a ‘‘consumer report’’ is and the 

request for the Bureau to create a form 

that a consumer could use to identify 

adverse information. 

The Bureau is revising the text of the 

rule in § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii) to 

specifically provide that the 

documentation, which may consist of a 

statement prepared by the consumer, 

identifying adverse items of information 

may also be prepared by a designated 

representative on behalf of the 

consumer. However, the final rule 

provides that the designated 

representative cannot be a credit repair 

organization as defined in section 403(3) 

of the Credit Repair Organizations Act 

or an entity that would be a credit repair 

organization, but for section 403(3)(B)(i) 

of the Credit Repair Organizations Act.49

The Bureau notes this approach will 

reinforce the need for consumer 

reporting agencies to accept trafficking 

documentation, as required under 

§ 1022.142(d)(1), from third parties 

identified as assisting with or acting on 

behalf of the consumer while 

acknowledging the concern raised by 

some commenters of potential abuse 

and fraud. 

New § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii)(A) contains 

language from the proposed rule 

providing that the documentation 

submitted to consumer reporting 

agencies must include items of adverse 

information that should not be 

furnished by a consumer reporting 

agency because the items resulted from 

a severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking of which the consumer is 

a victim. 

New § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii)(B) provides 

that documentation identifying the 

adverse items of information must also 

contain a preferred method for a 

consumer reporting agency to contact 

the consumer. As explained in the 

section-by-section analysis of 

§ 1022.142(f) below, the final rule 

requires a consumer reporting agency to 

provide written or electronic notice to 

the consumer within five days of 

reaching a final determination on a 

submission. Many commenters 

underscored that victims of trafficking 

frequently have a heightened need to 

keep their location confidential as well 

as to ensure their request to block 

information is not communicated to a 

location where their trafficker may be 

able to receive the information. The 

Bureau is concerned that fear of a 

victim’s safe address or phone number 

reaching their trafficker may deter some 

victims from seeking to block adverse 

information. For this reason, the final 

rule provides that victims of trafficking 

must submit a preferred method of 

contact for use by the consumer 


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50Consistent with the TVPA, the Bureau is 

interpreting section 605C to mean that a ‘‘victim’’ 

is a person who was subjected to an act or practice 

described in the definitions of ‘‘severe forms of 

trafficking in persons’’ and ‘‘sex trafficking.’’ A 

person who engaged in or perpetrated a severe form 

of trafficking in persons or sex trafficking—but who 

was not subjected to such an act or practice by 

another person—is not a ‘‘victim’’ of those acts or 

practices. 

51See note Error! Bookmark not defined. supra; 

Training & Tech. Assistance Ctr., Off. for Victims 

of Crime, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Human Trafficking 

Task Force e-Guide, https://www.ovcttac.gov/ 

taskforceguide/eguide/1-understanding-humantrafficking/13-victim-centered-approach (last 

visited June 20, 2022). 

52See, e.g., 8 CFR 214.11(b) (explaining that a 

person must be ‘‘a victim of a severe form of 

trafficking in persons’’ to be eligible for a temporary 

T–1 immigration benefit); Off. to Monitor & Combat 

Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Dep’t of State, 2021 

Trafficking in Persons Report (Jun. 2021), at 26–27, 

https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-inpersons-report/ (describing the ‘‘acts,’’ ‘‘means,’’ 

and ‘‘purpose’’ elements of sex trafficking under 

Federal law). 

reporting agency. Consumer reporting 

agencies are required to use that method 

of contact and are prohibited from using 

that information for any purpose other 

than to communicate about the 

consumer’s request as described in 

§ 1022.142 (d) through (f). The Bureau 

also understands some consumers who 

are victims of trafficking may prefer to 

provide the physical or email address 

contact information of the consumer’s 

designated representative instead of the 

consumer’s contact information. 

Accordingly, consumer reporting 

agencies must use the preferred method 

of contact identified by consumer 

pursuant to § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii) for 

communications under § 1022.142 (d) 

through (f) even if the preferred contact 

is the consumer’s designated 

representative and not the consumer. 

The Bureau concludes that a victim of 

trafficking is in the best position to 

reliably identify which adverse items of 

information resulted from being 

trafficked. The Bureau is adopting the 

proposed rule’s approach of not 

defining what an ‘‘adverse item of 

information’’ in a ‘‘consumer report’’ is, 

because it may vary depending on the 

weight each individual user of a 

consumer report gives to certain items 

of information as well as the consumer’s 

individual circumstances and adding 

this language to the rule. The Bureau 

notes this approach will allow a victim 

of trafficking the opportunity to include 

adverse items of information that may 

not affect credit status, but resulted from 

victimization. As discussed below 

under § 1022.142(c) of the final rule, the 

Bureau is not adopting any exceptions 

to the requirement that consumer 

reporting agencies block adverse 

information that resulted from 

trafficking. Under the final rule, if a 

consumer has identified information 

resulting from trafficking as adverse, a 

consumer reporting agency must block 

that information. For example, the 

Bureau is concerned that some 

trafficking documentation may reference 

the time period the consumer was 

trafficked, but the consumer may 

request to block adverse items of 

information that arose after the victim 

was trafficked. A consumer who has 

been trafficked may have, for example, 

incurred debt or been evicted as a 

consequence of financial strain that was 

the result of having been trafficked. 

Under the final rule a consumer 

reporting agency must block adverse 

items of information that the consumer 

identifies as having resulted from 

trafficking and may not choose to only 

block adverse items of information that 

are the same or overlap with the time 

period the consumer was trafficked. 

The Bureau received requests from a 

few commenters to create a form that a 

consumer could use to identify adverse 

information. Commenters suggested that 

the form could include information 

such as the consumer’s personal 

information, contact information, period 

of time the consumer was trafficked, 

items of adverse information with an 

explanation why the information is the 

result of trafficking, identification of 

who is submitting the form, and the 

signature of the victim subject to 

penalty of perjury. The Bureau 

understands the ease of access a form 

could provide to consumers as well as 

to consumer reporting agencies and may 

determine to issue guidance in the 

future. However, the final rule provides 

flexibility to consumers by only 

requiring that consumers identify 

adverse items of information that 

resulted from trafficking, and the 

Bureau has determined that there is no 

need to include a form in the final rule. 

142(b)(7) Victim of Trafficking 

Proposed § 1022.142(b)(7) adopted the 

definition of ‘‘victim of trafficking’’ set 

out in section 605C(a)(3), which defines 

the term as a person who is a victim of 

a ‘‘severe form of trafficking in persons’’ 

or ‘‘sex trafficking.’’ Several individual 

commenters recommended that the 

Bureau use the term ‘‘survivor’’ rather 

than ‘‘victim.’’ These commenters 

observed that many believe that the use 

of ‘‘survivor’’ minimizes any stigma 

associated with victimhood and 

empowers individuals who have 

suffered harm from trafficking. 

One advocacy group suggested that 

the Bureau remove the reference to 

victims of sex trafficking in this 

definition, leaving only a victim of 

‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons’’ 

within the definition of a ‘‘victim of 

trafficking.’’ This commenter argued 

that the reference to ‘‘sex trafficking’’ is 

unneeded and may lead to confusion 

because ‘‘severe forms of trafficking in 

persons’’ already includes a sex 

trafficking component. According to the 

commenter, ‘‘severe forms of trafficking 

in persons’’ is the term generally used 

in Federal law to define eligibility for 

services and protections, and there is no 

Federal offense of ‘‘sex trafficking’’ as it 

is defined in the TVPA, 22 U.S.C. 

7102(12), thus there are no ‘‘victims’’ of 

that offense. 

The Bureau is finalizing this 

definition as proposed. First, this rule 

uses the term ‘‘victim’’ primarily 

because that is the wording of section 

6102 of the 2022 NDAA and the 

TVPA.50 While the Bureau recognizes 

that the term ‘‘survivor’’ is preferred by 

many individuals, service providers, 

and advocacy groups in other contexts, 

‘‘victim’’ is used more commonly in 

laws giving individuals rights and 

formal standing within the justice 

system.51 Second, regarding the 

inclusion of ‘‘sex trafficking’’ in the 

definition of ‘‘victim of trafficking,’’ 

section 605C(a)(3) expressly provides 

that ‘‘victim of trafficking’’ means a 

person who is a victim of (1) a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or (2) sex 

trafficking. As discussed in the sectionby-section analysis of § 1022.142(b)(5) 

above, ‘‘sex trafficking’’ means the 

recruitment, harboring, transportation, 

provision, obtaining, patronizing, or 

soliciting of a person for the purpose of 

a commercial sex act. Only some kinds 

of sex trafficking are included within 

the definition of ‘‘severe forms of 

trafficking in persons,’’ namely sex 

trafficking in which a commercial sex 

act is induced by force, fraud, or 

coercion, or in which the person 

induced to perform such act has not 

attained 18 years of age. The Bureau 

concludes that the inclusion of a victim 

of sex trafficking within the definition 

of ‘‘victim of trafficking’’ is not 

superfluous or likely to lead to 

confusion. Indeed, the fact that Congress 

expressly included victims of sex 

trafficking as victims of trafficking 

suggests that Congress intended the 

scope of this rule to apply more broadly 

than just to victims of severe forms of 

trafficking in persons. 

The Bureau understands that ‘‘severe 

forms of trafficking in persons,’’ as 

defined in the TVPA, 22 U.S.C. 

7102(11), is often the definition used to 

define trafficking under Federal law.52

The Bureau expects that many, if not 


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53Notably, many States have sex trafficking 

statutes that deviate from Federal law, such that a 

person may be legally identified as a perpetrator or 

victim of conduct that meets the statutory definition 

of ‘‘sex trafficking’’ under Federal law. Training & 

Tech. Assistance Ctr., Off. for Victims of Crime, 

Dep’t of Just., Human Trafficking Task Force eGuide: State Laws, https://www.ovcttac.gov/ 

taskforceguide/eguide/1-understanding-humantrafficking/14-human-trafficking-laws/state-laws/ 

(last visited June 20, 2022). 

54The Bureau notes, however, that there are 

limited circumstances in which law enforcement 

agencies are able to obtain certain consumer report 

and consumer file information from consumer 

reporting agencies notwithstanding any other 

provision of the FCRA. See sections 626 and 627 

of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681u, 1681v. 

55Polaris, State Report Cards: Grading Criminal 

Record Relief Laws for Survivors of Human 

Trafficking (Mar. 2019), at 6–7, https://

polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ 

Grading-Criminal-Record-Relief-Laws-for-Survivorsof-Human-Trafficking.pdf. 

most, victims of trafficking seeking to 

make use of the procedure set out in this 

section will have documentation 

identifying them as victims of conduct 

that qualifies as a ‘‘severe form of 

trafficking in persons’’ which includes 

components of ‘‘sex trafficking’’ and 

‘‘labor trafficking,’’ as opposed to ‘‘sex 

trafficking’’ as defined in the TVPA, 22 

U.S.C. 7102(12). However, the Bureau is 

concerned that limiting the definition of 

‘‘victim of trafficking’’ to only victims of 

sex trafficking as defined in a ‘‘severe 

form of trafficking in persons’’ could 

potentially limit the scope of the 

remedy created by this section, in direct 

contradiction to the plain language of 

the statute. Additionally, even if there is 

no Federal criminal offense of ‘‘sex 

trafficking’’ as defined in the TVPA, a 

person could still be identified as a 

victim of the conduct meeting that 

definition.53 Finally, the Bureau does 

not believe that the inclusion of victims 

of sex trafficking in general within this 

definition is likely to lead to confusion 

among consumers, even if eligibility for 

other programs and services is limited 

to victims of severe forms of trafficking, 

since all victims who qualify for those 

other programs and services will also be 

eligible under this section. For these 

reasons, the Bureau finalizes this 

definition as proposed. 

142(c) Prohibition on Inclusion of 

Adverse Information of Trafficking 

Victims 

Section 605C(b) provides that a 

consumer reporting agency may not 

furnish a consumer report containing 

any adverse item of information about a 

consumer that resulted from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking if the consumer has provided 

trafficking documentation to the 

consumer reporting agency. Proposed 

§ 1022.142(c) would have adopted this 

statutory language. The Bureau sought 

comments on whether this provision 

warrants further clarification. 

The Bureau received several 

comments on this aspect of the 

proposal. Consumer and anti-trafficking 

advocacy groups were largely in favor of 

blocking all items of adverse 

information, including criminal 

convictions and eviction histories. 

Several individual commenters asked 

the Bureau to apply the final rule to 

victims of domestic violence, arguing 

that there are similarities in financial 

hardship between victims of domestic 

violence and human trafficking. An 

industry commenter asked the Bureau to 

clarify that the types of adverse 

information that should be excluded 

from a consumer report is limited to 

only those adverse items that were 

related to the trafficking. Similarly, 

another industry commenter urged the 

Bureau to require victims to provide 

sufficient information to identify the 

adverse information that must be 

removed. The commenter also suggested 

that information on criminal 

convictions should require additional 

documentation in the form of a court 

order showing that the record has been 

expunged or the conviction underlying 

the record was reversed. This 

commenter urged the Bureau to 

consider including a specific exception 

permitting a consumer reporting agency 

to provide a Federal, State, or local law 

enforcement agency with access to the 

blocked information as provided for in 

section 605B(f) of the FCRA concerning 

identity theft information. Further, this 

commenter argued that information 

related to the revocation or non-renewal 

of required professional licenses or 

certifications should be excluded from 

the final rule because it is factual in 

nature and that the reason for revocation 

or non-renewal will not be evident from 

the records. They also asked the Bureau 

to create an exemption similar to section 

605B(f) of the FCRA that would allow 

consumer reporting agencies to provide 

blocked information to law enforcement 

agencies. 

After considering the comments, the 

Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(c) as 

proposed with minor technical 

revisions. The Bureau concludes that 

the final rule applies to all types of 

adverse information, including criminal 

and license records, and should not 

contain an exception for law 

enforcement agencies to access such 

information.54 The statute does not 

exclude adverse information about 

licensure, criminal convictions, or any 

other type of adverse information from 

this provision. Excluding these 

categories of information would 

contradict the purpose of section 605C 

and the final rule. The Bureau 

understands that a large number of 

victims of trafficking have a criminal 

record as a result of being trafficked. 

According to a recent study, a criminal 

record impacts one’s current or 

prospective employment opportunities 

because of background checks, family 

law issues involving visitation and child 

custody, the ability to obtain safe and 

affordable housing, medical care in the 

form of discrimination by healthcare 

providers, education where college 

applicants are required to answer 

criminal history questions as part of the 

admissions process, student loans as 

eligibility for Federal aid may be 

suspended if convicted of a drug 

offense, and immigration relief.55 Thus, 

the Bureau finds that such information 

is clearly ‘‘adverse,’’ and if the criminal 

history is a result of trafficking the 

Bureau concludes that it must be 

blocked. Applying § 1022.142 to all 

types of adverse information is 

consistent with section 605C and will 

provide victims with the best ability to 

secure financial integration and 

independence. Similarly, section 605C 

does not contain an exception for 

consumer reporting agencies to provide 

blocked information to law enforcement 

agencies and the Bureau concludes that 

such an exception is not warranted 

because such information would be 

blocked only after a consumer obtained 

a victim determination by an entity 

pursuant to § 1022.142(b)(6)(i). 

The Bureau also declines to expand 

the final rule to cover victims of 

domestic violence who have not been 

victims of ‘‘severe forms of trafficking in 

persons’’ or ‘‘sex trafficking.’’ Congress 

did not apply section 605C to victims of 

domestic violence. Moreover, section 

6102(c) of the 2022 NDAA limits the 

Bureau’s present rulemaking to 

preventing a consumer reporting agency 

from furnishing a consumer report 

containing any adverse item of 

information about a consumer that 

resulted from ‘‘trafficking’’ which 

section 605C defines as ‘‘severe forms of 

trafficking in persons’’ and ‘‘sex 

trafficking’’ under the TVPA. This does 

not mean, however, that consumers who 

are victims of domestic violence cannot 

be victims of trafficking if they 

otherwise meet the definition. 

As explained in the proposal, the 

Bureau interprets § 1022.142(c) to mean 

that a consumer reporting agency may 

not furnish any adverse item of 

information in a consumer report to the 

extent such information resulted from 

the consumer’s involvement in a severe 


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56Section 603(p) defines ‘‘consumer reporting 

agency that compiles and maintains files on 

consumers on a nationwide basis’’ (also known as 

a ‘‘nationwide consumer reporting agency’’) as 

follows: 

‘‘a consumer reporting agency that regularly 

engages in the practice of assembling or evaluating, 

and maintaining, for the purpose of furnishing 

consumer reports to third parties bearing on a 

consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, or 

credit capacity, each of the following regarding 

consumers residing nationwide: 

(1) Public record information. 

(2) Credit account information from persons who 

furnish that information regularly and in the 

ordinary course of business.’’ 15 U.S.C. 1681a(p). 

The three consumer reporting agencies that meet 

that definition are Equifax, TransUnion, and 

Experian. 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking and the consumer submitted 

trafficking documentation to the 

consumer reporting agency. In other 

words, this provision applies to 

information contained in the consumer 

report, and not the furnishing of a 

consumer report more generally. A 

consumer reporting agency may furnish 

a consumer report about a consumer 

who is a victim of trafficking so long as 

the report does not contain information 

that is required to be blocked by 

§ 1022.142. The Bureau concludes that 

final § 1022.142(c) is sufficiently clear 

because: (1) section 1022.142(b)(6)(ii)(A) 

limits the definition of ‘‘trafficking 

documentation’’ to documentation that 

identifies any items of adverse 

information that should not be 

furnished by a consumer reporting 

agency because the items resulted from 

a severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking of which the consumer is 

a victim; and (2) section 1022.142(e)(4), 

described in the section-by-section 

analysis below, clarifies that a consumer 

reporting agency may decline to block, 

or may rescind any block of, adverse 

information if the consumer reporting 

agency cannot properly identify the 

adverse items of information under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). 

142(d) Method of Submission to 

Consumer Reporting Agencies 

142(d)(1)–(d)(3) 

Proposed § 1022.142(d) established a 

method for consumers to submit 

trafficking documentation to consumer 

reporting agencies, as required in 

section 605C(c)(2). Proposed 

§ 1022.142(d)(1) stated that consumer 

reporting agencies must provide mailing 

addresses for a consumer to submit 

required documentation and may also 

establish a secure online portal for 

submissions. The proposed rule 

specifically required consumer 

reporting agencies to accept 

documentation sent to: (1) the mailing, 

and if applicable, website address used 

for disputes under section 611 of the 

FCRA; and (2) the new dedicated 

mailing address and, if applicable, a 

website address a consumer reporting 

agency must maintain to block adverse 

items of information resulting from 

trafficking. Proposed § 1022.142(d)(2) 

provided that a consumer reporting 

agency must add information on its 

publicly available website stating how 

submissions for the blocking of adverse 

items of information resulting from 

trafficking can be submitted. Proposed 

§ 1022.142(d)(3) provided that consumer 

reporting agencies must allocate a 

reasonable amount of personnel to 

respond to consumer inquiries about the 

process for and status of submissions at 

the existing toll-free number for 

disputes under section 611 of the FCRA 

and establish a separate toll-free 

telephone number dedicated to 

addressing submissions from consumers 

seeking to block adverse items of 

information resulting from trafficking. 

For the reasons discussed below, the 

Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(d) 

largely as proposed, with revisions to 

clarify consumer reporting agencies are 

required to provide and accept 

submissions at two mailing addresses 

and these addresses must be provided to 

a consumer and consumer 

representative as described in 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii), submissions must 

consist of an appropriate proof of 

identification under § 1022.142(b)(1) 

and trafficking documentation under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6), and to address 

comments received regarding 

application of the toll-free telephone 

number requirement to all consumer 

reporting agencies. 

One consumer group commented in 

support of the requirement to accept 

trafficking documentation at both 

existing addresses used for disputes 

under section 611 and dedicated 

addresses established to accept 

submissions under this section. 

Comments from industry groups varied. 

One financial institution recommended 

that the Bureau require consumer 

reporting agencies to use either the 

address used for section 611 disputes or 

a dedicated address for trafficking, 

while two trade associations 

recommended that the Bureau require 

the use of existing channels to limit 

costs for consumer reporting agencies 

and complexity for consumers. Another 

trade association recommended that the 

Bureau limit the requirement for 

additional mailing addresses (and web 

addresses, if applicable) and a toll-free 

number to only nationwide consumer 

reporting agencies as defined in section 

603(p) of the FCRA.56 A different trade 

association stated its opposition to 

requiring consumer reporting agencies 

to create a toll-free number for 

submissions under this section. This 

commenter argued that since the 

existing toll-free number requirement 

for disputes is only applicable to 

nationwide consumer reporting agencies 

under section 609(c)(1)(B), requiring a 

toll-free number for disputes is beyond 

the scope of this rulemaking and would 

be an unnecessary, new expense that 

may lead to consumer confusion. 

Several consumer groups urged the 

Bureau to require consumer reporting 

agencies to post detailed information 

about how information submitted by 

trafficking survivors is accessed, used, 

stored, and protected on relevant 

websites. Another consumer group 

recommended requiring consumer 

reporting agencies to provide links to 

other resources, such as information 

about available civil legal services, 

confidential mailing addresses, public 

benefits assistance, and the National 

Human Trafficking Hotline. 

For the reasons discussed below, the 

Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(d) with 

revisions to the proposal. Final 

§ 1022.142(d)(1) clarifies that a 

consumer reporting agency must 

provide two mailing addresses for a 

consumer, or consumer representative 

as described in § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii), to 

send a submission consisting of an 

appropriate proof of identification 

under § 1022.142(b)(1) and trafficking 

documentation under § 1022.142(b)(6). 

The final rule also provides that a 

consumer reporting agency may 

establish a secure online website portal 

for a consumer to upload a submission. 

This means if a consumer reporting 

agency intends to accept a submission 

electronically, it must create a secure 

online website portal and provide 

information on its website informing 

consumers where to upload the 

submission. New § 1022.142(d)(1) 

requires consumer reporting agencies to 

accept a submission sent to: (1) the 

mailing, and if applicable, website 

address used for disputes under section 

611 of the FCRA; and (2) the mailing 

address and, if applicable, the website 

address dedicated to blocking adverse 

items of information resulting from a 

severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking under § 1022.142. 

The Bureau finds that the small costs 

related to requiring consumer reporting 

agencies to establish a mailing address 

(or website address, if applicable) 

specifically dedicated to trafficking are 

justified by the benefits this approach 

would provide to consumers. Allowing 

consumer reporting agencies to use 

either their existing address under 


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57See 15 U.S.C. 1681g(c)(1)(B). 

58Section 605C does not expressly address these 

issues, but they are addressed in other statutory and 

regulatory provisions that apply to other processes 

for identity theft and disputing information in a 

consumer report. 

59See 12 CFR 1022.3(i)(1)(iii). 

60Section 611(a)(5) of the FCRA takes the latter 

approach with respect to successfully disputed 

information. 15 U.S.C. 1681i(a)(5). 

section 611 of the FCRA for disputes or 

a new address to receive documentation 

from victims of trafficking would add 

confusion and complexity for 

consumers, particularly if the consumer 

reporting agency does not make clear 

the distinction between disputes and 

block requests for victims of trafficking 

under this section. Additionally, the 

Bureau is concerned about the potential 

confusion caused by various consumer 

reporting agencies taking different 

approaches. These concerns are equally 

valid for all types of consumer reporting 

agencies, so the Bureau declines to 

apply this requirement to only the 

nationwide consumer reporting agencies 

under section 603(p) of the FCRA. The 

Bureau has determined that requiring all 

consumer reporting agencies to establish 

dedicated addresses for each procedure 

will allow consumers to make use of 

this section most efficiently and 

effectively at a relatively low cost. 

Section 1022.142(d)(2) of the final 

rule provides that a consumer reporting 

agency must add information on its 

publicly available website stating how 

submissions for the blocking of adverse 

items of information resulting from a 

severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking should be provided to a 

consumer reporting agency. 

For § 1022.142(d)(3), the Bureau 

agrees, however, with comments 

recommending that the toll-free 

telephone number requirement be 

limited to nationwide consumer 

reporting agencies. As noted by several 

industry commenters, nationwide 

consumer reporting agencies are 

currently required to have toll-free 

telephone numbers at which personnel 

are accessible to consumers during 

normal business hours under section 

609(c)(1)(B) of the FCRA,57 so this 

requirement adds minimal extra 

expense for those agencies. Requiring 

nationwide consumer reporting agencies 

to make personnel available by phone to 

answer questions about this process will 

provide significant benefits to 

consumers. Providing an avenue for 

consumers to ask questions before 

submitting trafficking documentation 

will make the process more efficient, 

and allowing consumers to check the 

status of their submissions will allow 

them to confirm that the process is 

working as intended. The Bureau 

recognizes that the costs associated with 

staffing a toll-free telephone number are 

greater for consumer reporting agencies 

that are not already subject to a similar 

requirement, and the Bureau anticipates 

that smaller, non-nationwide consumer 

reporting agencies are likely to receive 

less contact from consumers. For those 

reasons, the Bureau has limited the 

scope of this requirement to nationwide 

consumer reporting agencies as 

provided for in § 1022.142(d)(3). 

The Bureau declines to adopt further 

requirements requiring consumer 

reporting agencies to post detailed 

information about how information 

submitted by victims of trafficking is 

accessed, used, stored, and protected. 

The Bureau’s primary focus is on 

ensuring that information on how a 

consumer may submit documentation to 

the consumer reporting agency is made 

publicly available to consumers in a 

clear, easy-to-understand format. 

Requiring other information risks 

making that information more difficult 

for a consumer to find. If a consumer 

reporting agency wishes to include 

information about other resources for 

victims of trafficking, such as links to 

the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 

relevant government agencies, or other 

service providers, it may do so, but the 

Bureau declines to impose such a 

requirement. 

142(e)–(h) Overview 

In order to fully implement the 

consumer protection provisions of 

section 605C, the Bureau looked at preexisting statutory and regulatory 

requirements concerning the procedures 

used by consumers in reporting identity 

theft and in disputing the accuracy of 

information in consumer files and 

consumer reports and the obligations 

those regulations place on consumer 

reporting agencies to identify what 

aspects of those regulations might be 

useful in helping a consumer seeking to 

report items of adverse information that 

result from a severe form of trafficking 

in persons or sex trafficking of which 

the consumer is a victim. 

Section 1022.142(e) through (h) set 

forth below describe: (1) provisions to 

address the blocking of adverse 

information identified by the consumer, 

a requirement to notify the consumer 

and attempt to resolve deficiencies, the 

timing of the final determination, and 

limited situations in which the 

consumer reporting agency may decline 

or rescind a block; (2) the obligations of 

consumer reporting agencies to notify 

the consumer of the outcome with 

respect to the submission; (3) a record 

retention requirement of seven years 

from the date the submission is received 

by consumer reporting agencies; and (4) 

a requirement that consumer reporting 

agencies establish and maintain written 

policies and procedures to ensure and 

monitor compliance with section 605C 

and these implementing regulations. 

The Bureau proposed these procedural 

requirements under its authority in 

section 621(e) of the FCRA to prescribe 

regulations that are necessary and 

appropriate to administer and carry out 

the purposes and objectives of the 

FCRA, and to prevent evasions or to 

facilitate compliance.58

142(e) Block of Adverse Information 

Resulting From Trafficking 

142(e)(1)–(e)(3) 

In the proposed rule, the Bureau 

acknowledged consumer reporting 

agencies may encounter difficulty 

confirming certain information 

submitted by consumers. Under 

proposed § 1022.142(e), the Bureau 

proposed to provide consumer reporting 

agencies with the authority to decline to 

act, or to rescind action (if applicable) 

on a submission. This provision is 

similar to section 605B(c) of the FCRA, 

which allows a consumer reporting 

agency to decline to block information 

relating to a consumer, or to rescind any 

block, if the consumer reporting agency 

makes certain reasonable 

determinations. The Bureau also sought 

feedback on the use or adoption of 

procedures in the existing process in 

Regulation V for consumer reporting 

agencies that make reasonable requests 

for additional information for the 

purpose of determining the validity of 

alleged identity theft.59 As discussed in 

more detail in the section-by-section 

analysis of § 1022.142(f) below, the 

Bureau also proposed in § 1022.142(f)(1) 

to require a consumer reporting agency 

to provide written notice to a consumer 

of the results of a submission within 

five calendar days of receipt of the 

submission (or, if rescinding a 

previously applied block, five calendar 

days after rescinding). The Bureau 

requested comment on whether 

additional clarification on the manner 

in which a consumer reporting agency 

must notify the consumer and attempt 

to resolve any deficiencies in the 

submission of trafficking documentation 

is warranted. 

The Bureau also sought comment on 

whether the adverse items of 

information should simply be blocked 

from being reported as proposed, or 

should be deleted from the consumer’s 

file (or the file be modified as 

appropriate).60 Additionally, the Bureau 


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requested comment on whether a 

consumer reporting agency should be 

required to notify a furnisher about the 

consumer’s trafficking documentation 

submission to prevent a consumer 

reporting agency from furnishing a 

consumer report containing any adverse 

item of information about a consumer 

that resulted from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking. 

In relation to comments on the 

proposed five-calendar-day notice 

period in § 1022.142(f), an industry 

group stated the timeframe for blocking 

the adverse information is insufficient 

and should be separate from the 

timeframe to notify the victim. This 

commenter urged the Bureau to adopt 

timing that mirrors section 605B of the 

FCRA for ease of implementation and 

allow at least four business days for 

blocking and five business days to 

provide notice to the consumer after the 

placement or rejection of a requested 

block to provide notice to a consumer. 

The commenter also requested that the 

Bureau modify the timing from calendar 

days to business days to account for 

Federal holidays and weekends. 

In response to the request for 

comment on whether information 

should be blocked from being reported, 

deleted, or modified as appropriate, a 

consumer advocate commenter was 

supportive of deletion of the adverse 

information to ensure it was not 

accidentally reinserted or did not 

reappear after being ‘‘soft deleted’’ or 

suppressed. An industry commenter 

stated the Bureau should require the 

consumer reporting agency or furnisher 

to delete the items of adverse 

information or modify the credit file 

with some indication to align with 

current identity theft disputes 

procedures instead of suppressing the 

information. A commenter encouraged 

the Bureau to require adverse 

information to be blocked, not deleted, 

because the blocked information could 

be useful to law enforcement and 

prosecutors who are prosecuting 

traffickers. However, this commenter 

suggested that the information should 

be maintained in a secure fashion that 

can only be accessed through proper 

legal service. The commenter also 

suggested that consumer reporting 

agencies should be required to either 

flag that information has been 

suppressed without disclosing the 

reason for the suppression or suppress 

the information without any flag. One 

consumer group suggested that in some 

cases it may be better for the consumer 

if the item is not deleted because 

permanent deletion of consumer 

information could be detrimental to the 

consumer’s record and the act of 

deleting the information will likely 

result in reinsertion because a furnisher 

is likely to provide it again. This 

commenter encouraged the Bureau to 

issue regulations that could require a 

consumer reporting agency to do what 

is in the best interest of the consumer 

on blocking or deletion. 

Commenters were divided on whether 

consumer reporting agencies should be 

required to notify a furnisher of an item 

of adverse information when it receives 

a submission from a consumer. One 

individual commenter, a financial 

institution, a consumer group, and an 

industry group supported notification 

because it would prevent the furnisher 

from re-furnishing the information to 

that consumer reporting agency and 

from providing the information to other 

agencies, providing more benefits to 

consumers. Two other consumer groups 

and three industry trade associations 

opposed furnisher notification, citing 

concerns about the further 

dissemination of sensitive consumer 

information and potential compliance 

obligations that it would place on 

furnishers that receive this information. 

Two consumer groups advocated for 

allowing a consumer to opt in or out of 

furnisher notification at the time of 

submission, arguing that this approach 

would attain many of the benefits of 

automatic notification while allowing 

victims to control the dissemination of 

their personal information. 

The Bureau has considered the 

comments, and for the reasons set forth 

below, is finalizing § 1022.142(e) with 

several revisions and is renumbering the 

section. The Bureau is moving proposed 

§ 1022.142(e), which addresses the 

authority to decline or rescind a block, 

to § 1022.142(e)(4) and renaming final 

§ 1022.142(e) to reflect that it addresses 

the blocking of adverse information 

resulting from trafficking. The Bureau is 

further finalizing the rule with new 

§ 1022.142(e)(1) through (e)(3) to cover 

the block of adverse information 

identified by the consumer as resulting 

from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking, the 

requirement to notify the consumer and 

attempt to resolve deficiencies, and the 

final determination on blocking the 

reporting of adverse information 

identified by the consumer as resulting 

from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking. These new 

provisions cover timing and procedural 

questions raised in response to the 

Bureau’s request for feedback on the 

adoption of procedures used for identity 

theft in Regulation V for supplemental 

requests. The Bureau is also finalizing 

the rule without also requiring the 

deletion of adverse information in a 

consumer’s file resulting from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking or notification to furnishers. 

The Bureau is implementing a multistep process that a consumer reporting 

agency must follow when it receives a 

submission under § 1022.142(d)(1). 

First, § 1022.142(e)(1) provides that a 

consumer reporting agency has four 

business days from receipt of the 

consumer’s submission to block items of 

adverse information identified by the 

consumer or their representative from 

appearing in a consumer report. The 

Bureau concludes that four business 

days provides consumer reporting 

agencies with adequate time to institute 

a block of the items of adverse 

information identified by the consumer 

or their representative. Action within 

this timeframe is important since the 

Bureau recognizes a consumer may be 

in urgent need of housing or 

employment that could be facilitated by 

the block of the adverse information. 

Second, the Bureau is imposing a time 

period of five business days under 

which a consumer reporting agency 

must notify the consumer and attempt 

to resolve any deficiency in the 

consumer’s submission in new 

§ 1022.142(e)(2)(i). The Bureau 

recognizes in some cases the submission 

may not be complete, and the consumer 

reporting agency may need to obtain 

additional information from the 

consumer on a case-by-case basis in 

order to confirm the submission is 

complete. Section 1022.142(e)(2)(i) of 

the final rule provides that a consumer 

reporting agency is required to notify 

the consumer and attempt to resolve any 

deficiencies limited to instances where: 

(1) the consumer reporting agency 

cannot reasonably confirm the 

appropriate proof of identity for the 

consumer and, if applicable, the 

consumer’s representative under 

§ 1022.142(b)(1); (2) the consumer did 

not provide documentation consisting of 

a victim determination under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i); or (3) the consumer 

reporting agency cannot properly 

identify the adverse items of 

information under § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). 

The final rule also provides that a 

consumer reporting agency may not ask 

for information on the validity of the 

facts or circumstances detailed in the 

contents of the submitted trafficking 

documentation establishing the 

consumer is a victim of trafficking or 

whether the identified adverse 

information resulted from a severe form 

of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking under § 1022.142(b)(6). 

Third, § 1022.142(e)(2)(ii) provides a 

consumer reporting agency with a 

maximum of 25 business days after 


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61 15 U.S.C. 1681c–2(c). 

receiving the consumer’s submission 

under § 1022.142(d)(1) to make a final 

determination on whether the 

submission is complete in order to 

perform the final determination of the 

block under § 1022.142(e)(3) or decline 

to block or rescind any block under 

§ 1022.142(e)(4). The Bureau expects 

consumer reporting agencies to make 

any requests for clarifying information 

as expeditiously as possible (and 

limited to the reasons in 

§ 1022.142(e)(2)(i)) in order to allow 

consumers with an adequate amount of 

time to provide the requested 

information. For example, the Bureau 

expects a consumer reporting agency to 

send a request for additional 

information, if needed to complete the 

submission, to the preferred method of 

contact identified by the consumer 

required by § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii)(B). If the 

consumer reporting agency does not 

receive a response from the consumer, 

the consumer reporting agency must 

send an additional request to the 

consumer with sufficient time for a 

response within the 25-business day 

limit for a final determination in 

§ 1022.142(e)(2)(ii). The Bureau’s 

timeframe for action by the consumer 

reporting agency reflects a balance 

between the four-business-day 

timeframe for a consumer reporting 

agency to block the reporting of 

information in the context of alleged 

identity theft (under section 605B) and 

the 30-day timeframe a consumer 

reporting agency generally has to 

conduct a reasonable reinvestigation of 

the completeness or accuracy of a 

disputed item (under section 611). The 

Bureau concludes that these timeframes 

are reasonable and addresses concerns 

noted by commenters. 

Fourth, § 1022.142(e)(3) requires the 

consumer reporting agency to initiate a 

block (if the consumer reporting agency 

lacked enough information to perform a 

block under § 1022.142(e)(1)) or 

maintain a block initiated pursuant to 

§ 1022.142(e)(1) upon confirming the 

completion of the consumer’s 

submission and in accordance with the 

requirements of § 1022.142(e)(2). 

The Bureau is not requiring consumer 

reporting agencies to notify a furnisher 

about the consumer’s submission in the 

final rule. The Bureau requested 

comment on requiring a consumer 

reporting agency to notify the furnisher 

of the block in order to give a furnisher 

the opportunity to cease furnishing the 

blocked information to the consumer 

reporting agency that provided the 

notification. In the proposed rule, the 

Bureau evaluated whether this could 

then help ensure that blocked 

information is not refurnished and 

reinserted in a consumer report and 

help prevent the adverse items of 

information from being furnished by 

other consumer reporting agencies. 

However, the Bureau is declining to 

require notification to furnishers given 

the serious privacy and data security 

concerns raised by commenters who 

noted a risk that information that is 

passed to a furnisher could more easily 

reach a trafficker and put the consumer 

at risk. The Bureau encourages 

consumer reporting agencies to develop 

a process to ensure the reinsertion of 

adverse items resulting from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking after being blocked from the 

consumer’s file does not occur. 

However, the Bureau cautions that 

consumer reporting agencies should not 

provide furnishers with information 

about the consumer’s request or the 

reason for the block. 

The final rule also does not require 

consumer reporting agencies to delete 

adverse items of information identified 

by the victim of trafficking from the 

consumer’s credit file. The Bureau has 

determined that requiring consumer 

reporting agencies to delete that 

information would be 

counterproductive because, as 

explained above, the final rule does not 

require a consumer reporting agency to 

notify the furnisher of adverse 

information that a consumer has 

submitted the required documentation. 

If the information is deleted, but the 

furnisher is not provided with a reason, 

there is a substantial risk that the 

information will be reinserted into the 

report, whereas a block without deletion 

makes it more likely that the consumer 

reporting agency will not include the 

adverse information in future reports 

after the information is confirmed to 

remain blocked in § 1022.142(e)(3). 

142(e)(4) Authority To Decline or 

Rescind a Block 

In the proposed rule, the Bureau 

stated consumer reporting agencies may 

encounter difficulty confirming certain 

information submitted by consumers. 

Under proposed section 1022.142(e), the 

Bureau proposed to provide consumer 

reporting agencies with the authority to 

decline to act, or to rescind action (if 

applicable) on a submission. The 

proposed provision was similar to 

section 605B(c) of the FCRA, which 

allows a consumer reporting agency to 

decline to block information relating to 

a consumer, or to rescind any block, if 

the consumer reporting agency makes 

certain reasonable determinations.61

Proposed § 1022.142(e) provided that 

a consumer reporting agency may 

decline to block, or may rescind any 

block, of adverse items of information 

resulting from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking 

where: (1) the consumer reporting 

agency requests and cannot reasonably 

confirm the appropriate proof of 

identity under § 1022.142(b)(1); (2) the 

consumer cannot provide 

documentation under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i); or (3) the consumer 

reporting agency cannot properly 

identify the adverse items of 

information under § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). 

The section-by-section analysis of 

§ 1022.142(e) of the proposed rule 

discussed how the Bureau is not 

proposing to interpret section 605C as 

giving a consumer reporting agency the 

discretion to contest the merits of the 

submitted trafficking documentation, if 

such documentation meets the 

definition in section 605C(a) and in 

proposed § 1022.142(b)(6)(i). In the 

section-by-section analysis of 

§ 1022.142(e) in the proposed rule, the 

Bureau did not propose to interpret 

section 605C as giving a consumer 

reporting agency the discretion to 

challenge a consumer’s determination 

that an adverse item of information 

resulted from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking 

under § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). However, the 

Bureau sought comments on these 

approaches. 

The Bureau proposed to clarify in 

§ 1022.142(e) that consumer reporting 

agencies can request appropriate proof 

of identity of the consumer who is a 

victim of trafficking as defined in 

§ 1022.142(b)(1) and that consumer 

reporting agencies can decline or 

rescind a block if it cannot reasonably 

confirm the appropriate proof of 

identity. Proposed § 1022.142(e) also 

required a consumer reporting agency, 

prior to exercising its authority to 

decline or rescind a block, to notify the 

consumer and attempt to resolve any 

deficiency in the consumer’s 

submission. 

The Bureau received comments from 

industry and consumer advocates on 

certain aspects of this provision. Several 

consumer advocates supported the 

Bureau’s proposed approach and urged 

the Bureau not to give consumer 

reporting agencies discretion to decide 

whether consumers were victims of 

trafficking beyond confirming that the 

consumer has provided required 

trafficking documentation and 

identified the adverse information that 

resulted from trafficking. At least one 

consumer advocate urged the Bureau to 

provide an enumerated list of acceptable 


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documentation, prohibit a consumer 

reporting agency from rejecting that 

documentation, and expressly state that 

a consumer reporting agency cannot 

reject a request for any reason other than 

those listed in § 1022.142(e). The same 

commenter also asked that the final rule 

specifically state that a consumer 

reporting agency cannot decline to block 

adverse information because the 

consumer reporting agency questions 

the merits of the submitted trafficking 

documentation or the consumer’s 

determination that an adverse item of 

information resulted from trafficking. 

An industry commenter generally 

supported the proposed provision, but 

asked that the reasons for rescinding or 

declining a block be expanded to cover 

two additional scenarios: (1) a material 

misrepresentation of fact; and (2) 

criminal record information if the 

victim is required to register as a sex 

offender. 

For the reasons discussed below, the 

Bureau is adopting its proposal by 

renumbering proposed § 1022.142(e) to 

§ 1022.142(e)(4) and by clarifying the 

limited circumstances under which a 

consumer reporting agency may decline 

or rescind a block. New § 1022.142(e)(4) 

provides that a consumer reporting 

agency may only decline or rescind a 

block only if the consumer reporting 

agency cannot reasonably confirm the 

appropriate proof of identity for the 

consumer and, if applicable, the 

consumer’s representative under 

§ 1022.142(b)(1), the consumer cannot 

provide documentation consisting of a 

victim determination under 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(i), or the consumer 

reporting agency cannot properly 

identify the adverse items of 

information under § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). 

This means a consumer reporting 

agency can request appropriate proof of 

identity of the consumer who is a victim 

of trafficking as defined in 

§ 1022.142(b)(1) and, if applicable, the 

consumer’s representative, and that 

consumer reporting agencies can 

decline or rescind a block if it cannot 

reasonably confirm the appropriate 

proof of identity. Similar to the sectionby-section analysis of § 1022.142(e) in 

the proposed rule, the Bureau does not 

interpret section 605C as giving the 

consumer reporting agency the 

discretion to contest the merits of the 

submitted trafficking documentation, if 

it meets the definition in section 

605C(a) and in § 1022.142(b)(6)(i), nor 

does it interpret the statute as giving a 

consumer reporting agency the 

discretion to challenge a consumer’s 

determination that an adverse item of 

information resulted from a severe form 

of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking under § 1022.142(b)(6)(ii). 

Accordingly, the Bureau is amending 

the text of new § 1022.142(e)(4) to 

provide that a consumer reporting 

agency may not decline to block or 

rescind any block of adverse 

information identified by the consumer 

or if applicable, the consumer’s 

representative, based on the validity of 

the facts or circumstances detailed in 

the contents of the submitted trafficking 

documentation under § 1022.142(b)(6) 

of this section. 

Section 1022.142(e)(4) also provides 

that a consumer reporting agency may 

decline or rescind a block only after the 

consumer is notified using the method 

of contact specified by the consumer in 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii)(B) and the consumer 

reporting agency attempted to resolve 

any deficiency in the consumer’s 

submission as required in 

§ 1022.142(e)(2). The Bureau believes 

requiring consumer reporting agencies 

to notify the consumer and attempt to 

resolve any deficiencies in the 

consumer’s submission will facilitate 

compliance and is appropriate to 

prevent a consumer reporting agency 

from furnishing a consumer report 

containing any adverse item of 

information about a consumer that 

resulted from trafficking by providing 

consumers an opportunity to complete 

their submission or correct mistakes 

with respect to information or 

documentation they provide initially 

and making it less likely that a 

consumer reporting agency will decline 

to block or a rescind a block in error. In 

doing so, the Bureau is relying on its 

regulatory authority under section 

621(e) of the FCRA, which authorizes 

the Bureau to prescribe regulations that 

promote accuracy and fairness in credit 

reporting, and on the general 

rulemaking authority granted the 

Bureau under section 1022(b)(1) of the 

Dodd-Frank Act. 

The Bureau concludes that giving 

consumer reporting agencies additional 

discretion to evaluate the validity of the 

facts or circumstances detailed in the 

contents of trafficking documentation, 

as defined in § 1022.142(b)(6), would 

make it difficult for consumers to 

understand how to properly submit a 

request, may decrease the Bureau’s 

ability to monitor for compliance, and 

could also lead to invalid reasons for 

declining or rescinding a block. As 

discussed in more detail above in the 

section-by-section analysis of 

§ 1022.142(c), Congress did not provide 

an exception for criminal convictions 

and the final rule does not provide such 

an exception. The Bureau also 

concludes that the final rule should not 

provide a material misrepresentation of 

fact as a reason a consumer reporting 

agency may decline or rescind a block 

since the Bureau does not interpret 

section 605C(a)(1) as permitting a 

consumer reporting agency to make 

factual determinations on whether a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking or if 

adverse items of information identified 

by the consumer resulted from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking. The Bureau also finds doing 

so could lead to confusion and result in 

improper denials if the consumer 

reporting agency inappropriately 

concludes that a material 

misrepresentation of fact was made. 

Accordingly, the Bureau is finalizing the 

proposed rule, with the clarifications 

noted above. 

142(f) Notification to Consumer of 

Actions Taken in Response to the 

Consumer’s Submission 

The Bureau proposed in 

§ 1022.142(f)(1) to require a consumer 

reporting agency to provide written 

notice to a consumer of the results of a 

submission within five calendar days of 

receipt of the submission (or, if 

rescinding a previously applied block, 

five calendar days after rescinding). As 

proposed, § 1022.142(f)(2) would have 

required a consumer reporting agency to 

provide notice in writing informing the 

consumer that the review of the 

submission is completed, a statement 

explaining the outcome, a consumer 

report provided at no cost to the 

consumer that is based upon the 

consumer’s revised file (if applicable), a 

description of the procedures used to 

determine the outcome, a method for 

contacting the consumer reporting 

agency to appeal the determination or 

revise the submission to cure any of the 

noted reasons for declining to block the 

requested adverse information, and the 

web page consumers can use to submit 

complaints to the Bureau. 

The Bureau received mixed comments 

on the proposed notice requirements. 

Several individual and consumer group 

commenters expressed their general 

support for the proposal. Two industry 

trade associations objected to the 

proposed five-calendar-day notice 

period. One of these commenters 

specifically urged the Bureau to mirror 

section 605B of the FCRA for ease of 

implementation and allow at least four 

business days for blocking and five 

business days to provide notice to the 

consumer. This commenter also argued 

that the requirement to provide written 

notice is beyond the scope of the 

rulemaking directed by section 605C. 

The other commenter stated five days is 

an insufficient time to require consumer 


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62Emphasis added. 

reporting agencies to provide a written 

notice for documents that are submitted, 

but not rescinded. This commenter also 

proposed the Bureau change ‘‘provide’’ 

to ‘‘send’’ to address the delivery time 

that is not typically within the control 

of a consumer reporting agency. One 

consumer group recommended that the 

Bureau require consumer reporting 

agencies to use a preferred mailing 

address provided by the victim because 

of safety and privacy concerns. An 

industry trade association made a 

similar request, noting that consumer 

reporting agencies may not have a 

current address or contact information 

for the consumer. 

Multiple individual commenters and 

consumer groups supported requiring a 

consumer reporting agency to 

automatically send a revised consumer 

report to the consumer. Other 

commenters recommended that the 

Bureau require consumer reporting 

agencies to provide instructions for 

obtaining a current copy of their credit 

report rather than automatically mailing 

a copy, in accordance with existing 

procedures to protect the privacy of 

victims. One industry commenter 

questioned how this requirement would 

apply to consumer reporting agencies 

like background screeners that do not 

maintain a file from which to draft new 

reports. The Bureau also received 

several comments urging the adoption 

of other requirements not addressed in 

the proposal. One consumer group 

commenter urged the Bureau to require 

a consumer reporting agency to include 

in the notice details on the appeals 

process if a request is declined, and 

another opposed allowing the consumer 

reporting agency to demand specific 

additional items of information before it 

would approve a trafficking block. 

For the reasons discussed below, the 

Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(f) largely 

as proposed, with some revisions to 

address certain comments received 

regarding timing requirements. As 

described above, § 1022.142(e) of the 

final rule adopts certain timeframes for 

the consumer reporting agency to block 

the reporting of information after receipt 

of documentation from the consumer. 

Final § 1022.142(f) has been modified to 

account for the timing requirements in 

new § 1022.142(e) by changing the 

allotted time for a consumer reporting 

agency to provide notice to the 

consumer from five calendar days after 

receipt of the submission to five 

business days after a final determination 

on a consumer’s submission under 

§ 1022.142(e)(3) (or, if rescinding a 

previously applied block, five business 

days after rescinding under 

§ 1022.142(e)(4)) in order to improve 

implementation of this section. 

The Bureau concludes that the 

contents of the notice required by 

§ 1022.142(f) are appropriately tailored 

to providing consumers the information 

they need to ensure that their 

submission was handled correctly by 

the consumer reporting agency. This 

information ensures that the consumer 

is provided with a thorough explanation 

of the outcome and the appeals process, 

and providing a copy of the revised 

consumer report allows the consumer to 

verify that the correct items have been 

blocked. Moreover, requiring a notice to 

the consumer on how to submit a 

complaint to the Bureau will facilitate 

compliance and is appropriate to 

prevent a consumer reporting agency 

from furnishing a consumer report 

containing any adverse item of 

information about a consumer that 

resulted from trafficking by providing 

consumers with the information they 

need to determine if a consumer 

reporting agency declined to block or a 

rescind a block in error and with 

information about how to get any such 

error corrected. 

If the consumer is not notified of the 

outcome by the consumer reporting 

agency, the consumer would either have 

to separately request a copy of their 

credit report, perhaps incurring a fee, or 

wait to see if they are subject to an 

adverse action the next time their 

consumer report is used, which may 

mean missing out on credit, 

employment, or housing opportunities. 

Many victims of trafficking will be in 

particularly urgent need of housing, 

employment, or credit, and knowing 

within a reasonable time that a 

consumer reporting agency has blocked 

adverse items of information may 

facilitate a victim’s ability to obtain 

these vital services. The Bureau also 

finds that these requirements in 

§ 1022.142(f) are necessary to prevent a 

consumer reporting agency from 

furnishing a consumer report containing 

any adverse item of information about a 

consumer that resulted from trafficking 

because it provides consumers with the 

opportunity to review the outcome and, 

if the consumer reporting agency 

incorrectly rejected a submission, to 

dispute that outcome. 

The Bureau recognizes that certain 

consumer reporting agencies may not 

maintain a file from which they produce 

reports, including some background 

screeners. The final text accounts for 

this situation, as it requires the 

consumer reporting agency to provide a 

report ‘‘that is based upon the 

consumer’s revised file (if applicable) as 

a result of the consumer’s 

submission.’’ 62 Accordingly, the Bureau 

declines to adopt a special exception for 

consumer reporting agencies that do not 

maintain files on consumers. Finally, 

the Bureau adopts a minor clarification 

that the notice must be sent by the 

preferred communication method 

specified by the consumer in the 

submission as provided for in 

§ 1022.142(b)(6)(ii)(B). 

142(g) Record Retention 

Proposed § 1022.142(g) would have 

required a consumer reporting agency to 

retain evidence of submissions under 

section 605C. The proposal would have 

also required a consumer reporting 

agency to maintain documentation 

concerning the outcome of the 

submissions, reasons for declining or 

rescinding to act (if applicable), and 

compliance with § 1022.142. In the 

proposed rule, consumer reporting 

agencies would have needed to retain 

this information for a period of seven 

years after the date the submission by 

the consumer is received. Under section 

605 of the FCRA, most adverse 

information would be excluded from 

consumer reports after seven years 

automatically. 

The Bureau received comments from 

individuals, industry, and consumer 

groups on this proposed provision. 

While most commenters supported a 

record retention requirement, all who 

commented suggested revisions. A few 

commenters suggested that record 

retention requirements should be 

extended to 10 years because certain 

bankruptcies may be reported for 10 

years. Another commenter suggested 

that consumer reporting agencies should 

be required to publish their policies on 

recordkeeping and data collection. 

Similarly, a consumer advocate urged 

the Bureau to provide additional 

information about the data protection 

obligations of consumer reporting 

agencies so that survivors understand 

how their information will be protected. 

The commenter also suggested that the 

Bureau communicate any exceptions to 

the general record retention rule so that 

survivors can better determine whether 

they want to submit a request. 

Two industry commenters opposed 

the proposed record retention 

requirements because they believe that 

the requirements are antithetical to 

current data privacy and data security 

regulation and could increase the scope 

of, and risk related to, a data breach. 

They suggested that the requirements 

are too broad or too long, and one 

suggested that victims may hesitate to 

provide information because victims 


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63 12 CFR 1074.1. 

64 5 U.S.C. 553(d). 

may fear that their information will be 

shared with others. One commenter 

argued that submitted information 

should be destroyed under standard 

data retention timeframes, which are 

often much shorter than seven years. 

The other commenter suggested aligning 

record retention requirements with the 

statute of limitations or statute of repose 

for the FCRA. 

For the reasons stated below, the 

Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(g) with 

minor revisions to cross references 

within the rule. The final rule provides 

that a consumer reporting agency must 

retain evidence of submissions and 

compliance with this section for a 

period of seven years after the 

consumer’s submission, which the 

Bureau has determined is an 

appropriate period of time to require 

consumer reporting agencies to retain 

records. The Bureau concludes that it is 

not appropriate to tie record retention 

requirements to the statute of 

limitations or statute of repose because 

it would unnecessarily complicate the 

requirements. Those time periods can be 

difficult to determine and provide less 

clarity for all involved. While some 

adverse information remains on a 

consumer report for longer than seven 

years, the Bureau has determined that 

seven years strikes the right balance 

because most adverse information will 

be excluded from a consumer report 

after seven years. 

The Bureau finds that requiring 

consumer reporting agencies to 

maintain records of compliance will 

enable the Bureau to assess consumer 

reporting agencies’ compliance with the 

rules. This requirement will also 

facilitate compliance by supporting 

effective and efficient enforcement of 

the rule in order to prevent a consumer 

reporting agency from furnishing a 

consumer report containing any adverse 

item of information about a consumer 

that resulted from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking. 

The final rule contains several 

clarifying revisions, including one 

technical correction to clarify that the 

record retention requirements apply to 

all submissions sent to the mailing or 

website address made available under 

§ 1022.142(d)(1). The final rule also 

clarifies the types of evidence that must 

be retained under this section by 

including cross-references to actions 

taken by a consumer reporting agency 

under § 1022.142(e)(1) through (e)(3) 

and (f) as well as the reasons provided 

under § 1022.142(e)(4) for declining to 

block or rescinding any block of items 

of adverse information identified by the 

consumer. 

142(h) Policies and Procedures To 

Ensure and Maintain Compliance 

Proposed § 1022.142(h) required 

consumer reporting agencies to establish 

and maintain written policies and 

procedures reasonably designed to 

ensure and monitor the compliance of 

the consumer reporting agency and its 

employees with the requirements of this 

section. Rather than proposing a onesize-fits-all approach, proposed 

§ 1022.142(h) specified that these 

written policies and procedures must be 

appropriate to the nature, size, 

complexity, and scope of the activities 

of the consumer reporting agency and 

its employees. For example, consumer 

reporting agencies must develop 

policies and procedures that address 

how requests are evaluated and 

processed, and the limited 

circumstances a consumer reporting 

agency may decline or rescind a block 

under § 1022.142(e). 

The Bureau received few comments 

on this provision. A consumer advocate 

recommended requiring policies and 

procedures to detail how traffickingspecific information will be used, 

shared, and protected and making such 

policies and procedures available to 

review before submitting a request. One 

commenter asked the Bureau to specify 

penalties for failing to comply with this 

provision. 

The Bureau is finalizing § 1022.142(h) 

as proposed. The Bureau believes 

requiring consumer reporting agencies 

to maintain written policies and 

procedures is necessary to administer 

the rule by enabling the Bureau to assess 

consumer reporting agencies’ 

compliance with the rule and to 

facilitate compliance in order to prevent 

a consumer reporting agency from 

furnishing a consumer report containing 

any adverse item of information about a 

consumer that resulted from human 

trafficking. Written policies and 

procedures will help consumer 

reporting agencies ensure they have 

developed practices that fully 

implement the requirements of this 

section that are tailored to the nature, 

size, complexity, and scope of the 

activities of the consumer reporting 

agency and its employees. The Bureau 

understands that some, if not all, 

consumer reporting agencies have preexisting policies and procedures to 

ensure compliance of the FCRA and 

Regulation V and these policies and 

procedures also describe how 

consumer’s information submitted to 

them will be used, shared, and 

protected. 

The Bureau expects consumer 

reporting agencies to make information 

available to consumers who are victims 

of trafficking information on how their 

submission of information will be used, 

shared, and protected. The Bureau 

believes this is particularly important 

given the treatment and harm inflicted 

upon victims of trafficking by their 

trafficker. 

VI. Effective Date 

Pursuant to section 6102(c) of the 

2022 NDAA, the amendments to the 

FCRA shall go into effect 30 days after 

the Bureau issues a final rule. In 

accordance with procedures for the 

issuance of Bureau rules, a final Bureau 

rule is deemed to be issued on the 

earlier of ‘‘(a) [w]hen the final rule is 

posted on the Bureau’s website; or (b) 

[w]hen the final rule is published in the 

Federal Register.’’ 63 This means the 

effective date of section 605C could be 

based on the date the final rule is posted 

on the Bureau’s website instead of the 

date the final rule is published in the 

Federal Register, if posting on the 

Bureau’s website is first. Under section 

553(d) of the Administrative Procedure 

Act,64 the required publication or 

service of a substantive rule must be 

made not less than 30 days before its 

effective date, with certain exceptions 

not applicable here. 

In the proposed rule, the Bureau 

proposed an effective date of 30 days 

after the date of the final rule’s 

publication in the Federal Register so 

that the final rule would take effect at 

the same time as section 605C. The 

Bureau received two comments 

requesting a later effective date to give 

the industry more time to implement 

the rule. One commenter explained that 

this extra time is needed to allow the 

consumer reporting agencies to train 

employees and implement necessary 

compliance controls. 

The Bureau has considered these 

comments and has determined that, as 

proposed, the final rule will become 

effective 30 days after publication in the 

Federal Register. Thus, the final rule 

will take effect as close to the effective 

date of section 605C as possible. The 

Bureau finds that an effective date of a 

rule that is contemporaneous to the 

statutory effective date will avoid 

uncertainty for consumers who are 

victims of trafficking as well as for 

consumer reporting agencies. To the 

extent a consumer reporting agency 

receives a submission between any time 

period that section 605C is in effect and 

the effective date of the rule, the Bureau 

expects consumer reporting agencies to 

otherwise comply with section 605C(b) 


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65Consumer reporting agencies could look to new 

section 1022.142 on how to handle submissions 

between the statutory and rule effective date to the 

extent there is a gap. 66 12 U.S.C. 5512(b)(2)(A). 

67This may occur if the consumer is not aware 

of the adverse information or is not seeking any 

product or service that might rely on a consumer 

report including that information (e.g., if the 

adverse information relates to credit and the 

consumer is not currently seeking new credit). In 

addition, although the proposed rule is intended to 

make the submission process as straightforward as 

possible for victims of trafficking and intends to 

conduct outreach to ensure that victims are aware 

of their rights, consumers may not utilize the 

reporting process if they do not know their right to 

make a request, because they lack the required 

documentation, or because they believe the process 

to be more costly in time and effort than the 

potential benefits of blocking the adverse 

information. 

68Polaris Project, On-Ramps, Intersections, and 

Exit Routes (July 2018), at 23, https://

polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ARoadmap-for-Systems-and-Industries-to-Preventand-Disrupt-Human-Trafficking-FinancialIndustry.pdf. 

69Off. to Monitor & Combat Trafficking in 

Persons, U.S. Dep’t of State, 2021 Trafficking in 

Persons Report (Jun. 2021), https://www.state.gov/ 

reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/. 

70Fed. Trade Comm’n, Consumer Sentinel 

Network Data Book 2020 (Feb. 2021), at 7, https:// 

www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/ 

consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-2020/csn_

annual_data_book_2020.pdf. 

71 It is possible that consumer reporting agencies 

may incur some costs associated with submissions 

from individuals who claim fraudulently that 

adverse items of information in their consumer 

reports result from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking of which they allege to 

be a victim. Given the documentation requirements 

in the proposed rule, the Bureau does not expect 

this would happen often. One individual 

Continued 

by not furnishing a consumer report 

containing any adverse item of 

information about a consumer that 

resulted from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking 

if the consumer has provided trafficking 

documentation to the consumer 

reporting agency.65

VII. Dodd-Frank Act Section 1022(b)(2) 

Analysis 

In developing this final rule, the 

Bureau has considered the rule’s 

potential benefits, costs, and impacts in 

accordance with section 1022(b)(2)(A) of 

the Consumer Financial Protection Act 

of 2010 (CFPA).66 In developing the 

final rule, the Bureau has consulted or 

offered to consult with the prudential 

banking regulators (the FDIC, FRB, 

NCUA, and OCC) and the Bureau of 

Indian Affairs, several offices in the 

DOJ, the Office on Trafficking in 

Persons in HHS, Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS), and the FTC, 

including regarding consistency of this 

rule with any prudential, market, or 

systemic objectives administered by 

those agencies, in accordance with 

section 1022(b)(2)(B) of the CFPA. Most 

commenters did not specifically address 

the Bureau’s proposed section 1022(b) 

analysis; the Bureau discusses those 

comments that were relevant to the 

analysis below. 

The Bureau expects that the final rule 

will benefit consumers who are victims 

of a severe form of trafficking in persons 

or sex trafficking and have adverse 

information on file with a consumer 

reporting agency as a result of that 

trafficking. The benefits to individual 

consumers who are victims of 

trafficking could be considerable— 

adverse information from consumer 

reporting agencies could negatively 

affect a consumer’s ability to obtain 

housing, employment, credit, or other 

immediate and longer-term services 

necessary to support long-term 

independence and financial stability. 

Conversely, the final rule will impose 

costs on consumer reporting agencies in 

the form of compliance costs associated 

with processing requests from 

consumers to block adverse information 

and effecting the necessary blocks. 

While the Bureau does not have data to 

quantify these costs, the Bureau expects 

the costs of complying with the 

requirements of the final rule to be 

small in magnitude. Consumer reporting 

agencies are already required by 15 

U.S.C. 1681c–2 to have systems in place 

to accept reports of identity theft, and to 

respond to those reports by suppressing 

information on any consumer reports. 

Consumer reporting agencies also have 

systems in place to address treatment of 

inaccurate and unverifiable information 

as required by 15 U.S.C. 1681i(a)(5) and 

concerning the notice of results of 

reinvestigation under 15 U.S.C. 

1681i(a)(6). This rule’s procedural 

requirements are modeled on these 

requirements. 

Some industry commenters noted that 

the proposed requirement to have a 

dedicated toll-free phone number to 

receive requests to block adverse 

information related to trafficking would 

be particularly burdensome for smaller 

consumer reporting agencies, as the 

regime for identity theft block requests 

only requires the nationwide consumer 

reporting agencies to maintain a 

dedicated toll-free phone number. The 

Bureau has modified this provision in 

the final rule to only impose this 

requirement on consumer reporting 

agencies that already maintain a 

dedicated toll-free number for identity 

theft. As a result, the final rule will not 

impose this cost on covered persons. 

Although the Bureau characterizes 

qualitatively the nature of the benefits to 

consumers and the costs to firms above, 

it is not able to quantify the overall 

magnitude of the likely costs and 

benefits of the proposed rule. 

Quantifying these costs and benefits 

would require an estimate of the 

number of consumers likely to submit 

information to support a block under 

the rule in a typical year. Not all victims 

of trafficking will necessarily have 

adverse information with a consumer 

reporting agency, and among those who 

do, not all will make a submission or be 

able to provide the required 

documentation.67 For instance, a report 

by the non-profit Polaris, cited by both 

industry and consumer advocate 

commenters, found that 26 percent of 

trafficking victims had bank accounts or 

credit cards fraudulently opened in 

their names.68 While illustrating the 

importance of the problem this rule is 

intended to address, this statistic also 

indicates that not all victims of 

trafficking necessarily have adverse 

information with a consumer reporting 

agency. The Bureau does not have a way 

to estimate the number of trafficking 

victims who will make a request, and 

according to the State Department, there 

is no reliable estimate of the annual 

number of trafficking victims in the 

United States. 

To provide a rough sense of scale, the 

Bureau compares available statistics on 

human trafficking in the United States 

to statistics on identity theft, which 

have a similar treatment under the 

FCRA as under the final rule. In 2020, 

the National Human Trafficking Hotline 

made 8,701 referrals for potential 

victims of trafficking.69 For comparison, 

the FTC received nearly 1.4 million 

complaints related to identity theft in 

2020.70 Both the number of referrals 

from the National Human Trafficking 

Hotline and the number of identity theft 

complaints to the FTC likely 

undercount the true incidence of 

trafficking and identity theft, 

respectively. However, given that not all 

victims of trafficking will have adverse 

information with a consumer reporting 

agency, it seems reasonable to assume 

that the annual number of consumer 

submissions to consumer reporting 

agencies under the final rule would be 

at least two orders of magnitude less 

than the volume similar requests related 

to identity theft. As a result, the Bureau 

expects that although the benefits of the 

final rule to individual consumers who 

are victims of trafficking may be 

considerable, the aggregate benefits to 

consumers and the aggregate costs to 

consumer reporting agencies are likely 

to be small.71


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commenter specifically supported this assessment, 

asserting that the documentation requirements in 

the Proposed Rule would reduce or eliminate the 

possibility of fraud. 

72 5 U.S.C. 601 through 612. 

73 5 U.S.C. 609. 

74 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. 

The final rule may increase consumer 

access to credit, to the extent that 

consumers who are victims of 

trafficking and have adverse information 

related to that trafficking present on a 

credit report, and blocking that adverse 

information makes it easier for those 

consumers to obtain credit. 

The final rule will not have a unique 

impact on insured depository 

institutions or insured credit unions 

with less than $10 billion in assets 

described in section 1026(a) of the 

Dodd-Frank Act. Finally, the final rule 

would not have a unique impact on 

rural consumers. 

VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Act 

Analysis 

The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) 

generally requires an agency to conduct 

an initial regulatory flexibility analysis 

(IRFA) and a final regulatory flexibility 

analysis (FRFA) of any rule subject to 

notice-and-comment rulemaking 

requirements, unless the head of the 

agency certifies that the rule will not, if 

promulgated, have a significant 

economic impact on a substantial 

number of small entities.72 The Bureau 

also is subject to certain additional 

procedures under the RFA involving the 

convening of a panel to consult with 

small business representatives prior to 

proposing a rule for which an IRFA is 

required.73 The final rule will apply to 

all consumer reporting agencies, 

including all those that are small 

businesses under the RFA. However, it 

is unlikely that any small business will 

experience a significant economic 

impact as a result of the rule. As 

discussed in section VII above, the 

number of submissions for blocking 

adverse information each year are likely 

to be small, and consumer reporting 

agencies are already required to have 

processes in place for processing similar 

requests due to existing requirements 

related to identity theft and dispute 

procedures under section 611 of the 

FCRA. 

Accordingly, the Director certifies that 

this final rule will not have a significant 

economic impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. Thus, a FRFA 

is not required for this final rule. 

IX. Paperwork Reduction Act 

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act 

of 1995 (PRA),74 Federal agencies are 

generally required to seek approval from 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for data collection, disclosure, 

and recordkeeping requirements 

(collectively, information collection 

requirements) prior to implementation. 

Under the PRA, the Bureau may not 

conduct or sponsor, and, 

notwithstanding any other provision of 

law, a person is not required to respond 

to, an information collection unless the 

information collection displays a valid 

control number assigned by OMB. As 

part of its continuing effort to reduce 

paperwork and respondent burden, the 

Bureau conducts a preclearance 

consultation program to provide the 

general public and Federal agencies 

with an opportunity to comment on the 

information collection requirements in 

accordance with the PRA. This helps 

ensure that the public understands the 

Bureau’s requirements or instructions, 

respondents can provide the requested 

data in the desired format, reporting 

burden (time and financial resources) is 

minimized, information collection 

instruments are clearly understood, and 

the Bureau can properly assess the 

impact of information collection 

requirements on respondents. 

This final rule amends 12 CFR part 

1022 (Regulation V). The Bureau’s OMB 

control number for Regulation V is 

3170–0002. As described below, the 

final rule creates the following new 

information collection requirements in 

Regulation V: 

• The final rule will require 

consumer reporting agencies to accept 

trafficking and other documentation 

from consumers, process the 

submissions, and block any adverse 

item of information identified by the 

consumer that resulted from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking under § 1022.142(d)–(e). 

Consumer reporting agencies will be 

required to inform consumers of their 

decision and actions with respect to the 

submission under § 1022.142(f). 

• The final rule requires consumer 

reporting agencies to retain evidence of 

all submissions by consumers pursuant 

to these regulations, including actions 

taken in response to the submissions, 

reasons for declining or rescinding the 

block requests, and compliance with 

this section for a seven-year period 

under § 1022.142(g). 

• The final rule requires consumer 

reporting agencies to establish and 

maintain written policies and 

procedures reasonably designed to 

ensure and monitor the compliance of 

the consumer reporting agency and its 

employees with the requirements of this 

rule under § 1022.142(h). 

The collections of information 

contained in this final rule, and 

identified as such, have been submitted 

to OMB for review under section 

3507(d) of the PRA. A complete 

description of the information collection 

requirements (including the burden 

estimate methods) is provided in the 

information collection request (ICR) that 

the Bureau has submitted to OMB under 

the requirements of the PRA. A separate 

comment period on the information 

collections concluded on June 17, 2022. 

OMB received no comments. 

Title of Collection: Regulation V: Fair 

Credit Reporting Act. 

OMB Control Number: 3170–0002. 

Type of Review: Revision of a 

currently approved collection. 

Affected Public: Private Sector; 

Federal, State, and Tribal Governments. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

The Bureau does not have enough 

information to estimate the number of 

respondents and is assuming de 

minimis. The Bureau requested 

comment on this assumption, but 

received no comments addressing this 

point. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: The Bureau does not have 

enough information to know how 

frequently this collection will occur or 

the burden it will impose. The Bureau 

received no comments directly 

addressing the burden of this collection. 

Two industry trade associations 

submitted comments arguing for a 

shorter record retention period under 

§ 1022.142(g), but neither commenter 

argued that the proposed requirement 

was too burdensome or provided an 

estimate of the burden of the proposed 

requirement in terms of time or 

financial resources. 

If OMB has not approved the new 

information collection requirements 

prior to publication of the final rule in 

the Federal Register, the Bureau will 

publish a separate notification in the 

Federal Register announcing OMB’s 

approval prior to the effective date of 

the final rule. 

The Bureau has a continuing interest 

in the public’s opinion of its collections 

of information. At any time, comments 

regarding the burden estimate, or any 

other aspect of the information 

collection, including suggestions for 

reducing the burden, may be sent to the 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 

(Attention: PRA Office), 1700 G Street 

NW, Washington, DC 20552, or by email 

to CFPB_PRA@cfpb.gov. 

Where applicable, the Bureau will 

display the control number assigned by 

OMB to any documents associated with 

any information collection requirements 

adopted in this rule. 


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75 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq. 

X. Congressional Review Act 

Pursuant to the Congressional Review 

Act,75 the Bureau will submit a report 

containing this rule and other required 

information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. 

House of Representatives, and the 

Comptroller General of the United 

States prior to the rule’s published 

effective date. The Office of Information 

and Regulatory Affairs has designated 

this rule as not a ‘‘major rule’’ as 

defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2). 

List of Subjects in 12 CFR Part 1022 

Banks, banking, Consumer protection, 

Credit unions, Holding companies, 

National banks, Privacy, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements, Savings 

associations. 

Authority and Issuance 

For the reasons set forth above, the 

Bureau amends Regulation V, 12 CFR 

part 1022, as set forth below: 

PART 1022—FAIR CREDIT 

REPORTING ACT (REGULATION V) 

■ 1. Revise the authority citation for part 

1022 to read as follows: 

Authority: 12 U.S.C. 5512, 5581; 15 U.S.C. 

1681a, 1681b, 1681c, 1681c–1, 1681c–3, 

1681e, 1681g, 1681i, 1681j, 1681m, 1681s, 

1681s–2, 1681s–3, and 1681t; Sec. 214, Pub. 

L. 108–159, 117 Stat. 1952. 

Subpart O—Miscellaneous Duties of 

Consumer Reporting Agencies 

■ 2. Add § 1022.142 to read as follows: 

§ 1022.142 Prohibition on inclusion of 

adverse information in consumer reporting 

in cases of human trafficking. 

(a) Scope. This section applies to any 

consumer reporting agency as defined in 

section 603(f) of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 

1681a(f). 

(b) Definitions. For purposes of this 

section: 

(1) Appropriate proof of identity 

means proof of identity that meets the 

requirements in § 1022.123, for 

purposes of section 605C of the FCRA. 

(2) Consumer report has the meaning 

provided in section 603(d) of the FCRA, 

15 U.S.C. 1681a(d). 

(3) Consumer reporting agency has the 

meaning provided in section 603(f) of 

the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681a(f). 

(4) Severe forms of trafficking in 

persons has the meaning provided in 

section 103 of the Trafficking Victims 

Protection Act of 2000, 22 U.S.C. 

7102(11). 

(5) Sex trafficking has the meaning 

provided in section 103 of the 

Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 

2000, as amended by section 108 of the 

Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 

2015, 22 U.S.C. 7102(12). 

(6) Trafficking documentation means 

one or more documents that satisfy 

paragraphs (b)(6)(i) and (ii) of this 

section: 

(i) Victim determination. 

Documentation that: 

(A) Is of a determination that a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking made 

by a: 

(1) Federal, State, or Tribal 

governmental entity; or 

(2) Non-governmental organization or 

members of a human trafficking task 

force, including victim service providers 

affiliated with the organization or task 

force, authorized by a Federal, State, or 

Tribal governmental entity to make such 

a determination; 

(B) Is of a determination that a 

consumer is a victim of trafficking made 

by a court of competent jurisdiction or 

determination consisting of documents 

filed in a court of competent jurisdiction 

where a central issue in the case is 

whether the consumer is a victim of 

trafficking and the court has, at a 

minimum, affirmed the consumer’s 

claim either by accepting certain pieces 

of evidence which are assumed to be 

true or finding that the there is no 

genuine dispute as to any material fact 

supporting a judgment in favor of the 

victim as a matter of law; or 

(C) Is of a signed statement by the 

consumer attesting that the consumer is 

a victim of trafficking if such statement 

or an accompanying document is signed 

or certified by a representative of an 

entity described in paragraph (b)(6)(i)(A) 

or (B) of this section. 

(ii) Identified adverse items of 

information. Documentation, which 

may consist of a statement prepared by 

the consumer or by any designated 

representative on behalf of a consumer 

(except for a credit repair organization 

as defined in section 403(3) of the Credit 

Repair Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. 

1679a(3), or an entity that would be a 

credit repair organization, but for 

section 403(3)(B)(i) of the Credit Repair 

Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. 

1679a(3)(B)(i)), that: 

(A) Identifies any items of adverse 

information that should not be 

furnished by a consumer reporting 

agency because the items resulted from 

a severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking of which the consumer is 

a victim; and 

(B) Must contain a preferred method 

for a consumer reporting agency to 

contact the consumer electronically or 

in writing such as an email address or 

physical address where mail can be 

received. A consumer reporting agency 

shall use only the consumer’s preferred 

method of contact for communications 

under paragraphs (d), (e), and (f) of this 

section about the consumer’s 

submission and shall not use the 

consumer’s preferred contact 

information for any other purpose. 

(7) Victim of trafficking means a 

person who is a victim of a severe form 

of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking. 

(c) Prohibition on inclusion of adverse 

information of trafficking victims. A 

consumer reporting agency may not 

furnish a consumer report containing 

any adverse item of information about a 

consumer that resulted from a severe 

form of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking if the consumer has provided 

trafficking documentation as defined 

under paragraph (b)(6) of this section to 

the consumer reporting agency. 

(d) Method of submission to consumer 

reporting agencies. (1) Mailing and 

website address. A consumer reporting 

agency must provide two mailing 

addresses for a consumer or consumer 

representative, as described in 

paragraph (b)(6)(ii) of this section, to 

send a submission consisting of an 

appropriate proof of identification 

under paragraph (b)(1) of this section 

and trafficking documentation under 

paragraph (b)(6) of this section. A 

consumer reporting agency may also 

establish a secure online website portal 

for a consumer to upload a submission. 

A consumer reporting agency must 

accept a submission sent to the mailing 

and, if applicable, website address used 

for disputes under section 611 of the 

FCRA, and must accept a submission 

sent to a mailing and, if applicable, 

website address dedicated to blocking 

adverse items of information resulting 

from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking under this 

section. 

(2) Disclosing methods for 

submission. A consumer reporting 

agency must add information on its 

publicly available website stating how 

submissions for the blocking of adverse 

items of information resulting from a 

severe form of trafficking in persons or 

sex trafficking should be provided to a 

consumer reporting agency. 

(3) Toll-free telephone number. A 

consumer reporting agency that 

compiles and maintains files on 

consumers on a nationwide basis, as 

defined in section 603(p) of the FCRA, 

15 U.S.C. 1681a(p), must: 

(i) Allocate a reasonable amount of 

personnel to respond to consumer 

inquiries about the process for and 

status of a consumer’s submission at the 

toll-free telephone number used for 


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disputes under section 611 of the FCRA; 

and 

(ii) Establish a toll-free telephone 

number dedicated to addressing 

submissions from consumers seeking to 

block adverse items of information 

resulting from a severe form of 

trafficking in persons or sex trafficking 

under this section. 

(e) Block of adverse information 

resulting from trafficking. (1) Block 

upon receipt of the submission. Except 

as otherwise provided in this section, 

within four business days of receipt of 

the consumer’s submission under 

paragraph (d)(1) of this section, a 

consumer reporting agency must block 

the reporting of any adverse item of 

information identified by the consumer 

(or their representative) as resulting 

from a severe form of trafficking in 

persons or sex trafficking. 

(2) Requirement to notify the 

consumer and attempt to resolve 

deficiencies. (i) In general. Within five 

business days of receipt of the 

consumer’s submission under paragraph 

(d) of this section, a consumer reporting 

agency must notify a consumer if 

additional information is necessary for 

the purpose of completing the 

submission and attempt to resolve any 

deficiency in the consumer’s 

submission. A consumer reporting 

agency may only request additional 

information where the consumer 

reporting agency cannot reasonably 

confirm the appropriate proof of 

identity under paragraph (b)(1) of this 

section for the consumer or, if 

applicable, the consumer’s 

representative, the consumer did not 

provide victim determination 

documentation under paragraph (b)(6)(i) 

of this section, or the consumer 

reporting agency cannot properly 

identify the adverse items of 

information under paragraph (b)(6)(ii) of 

this section. A consumer reporting 

agency may not, however, ask for 

information on the validity of the facts 

or circumstances detailed in the 

contents of the submitted trafficking 

documentation establishing the 

consumer is a victim of trafficking or 

whether the identified adverse 

information resulted from a severe form 

of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking under paragraph (b)(6) of this 

section. 

(ii) Timing of final determination. A 

consumer reporting agency must make a 

final determination on the consumer’s 

submission no later than 25 business 

days after receiving the submission 

provided in paragraph (d)(1) of this 

section. 

(3) Final determination of the block. 

Upon confirming completion of the 

submission from the consumer under 

paragraph (d)(1) of this section and in 

accordance with the requirements under 

paragraph (e)(2) of this section, the 

consumer reporting agency must initiate 

or maintain the action described in 

paragraph (e)(1) of this section by 

blocking the reporting of the items of 

adverse information on the consumer. 

(4) Authority to decline or rescind a 

block. A consumer reporting agency 

may decline to block, or may rescind 

any block of, adverse items of 

information resulting from a severe form 

of trafficking in persons or sex 

trafficking, in accordance with the 

timing requirements under paragraph 

(e)(2)(ii) of this section, only where the 

consumer reporting agency cannot 

reasonably confirm the appropriate 

proof of identity under paragraph (b)(1) 

of this section for the consumer, and, if 

applicable, the consumer’s 

representative, the consumer cannot 

provide documentation consisting of a 

victim determination under paragraph 

(b)(6)(i) of this section, or the consumer 

reporting agency cannot properly 

identify the adverse items of 

information under paragraph (b)(6)(ii) of 

this section. A consumer reporting 

agency may not, however, decline to 

block or rescind any block of adverse 

information identified by the consumer 

or if applicable, the consumer’s 

representative, based on the validity of 

the facts or circumstances detailed in 

the contents of the submitted trafficking 

documentation as defined in paragraph 

(b)(6) of this section. A consumer 

reporting agency may decline or rescind 

a block only after notifying the 

consumer using the method of contact 

specified by the consumer in paragraph 

(b)(6)(ii)(B) of this section and 

attempting to resolve any deficiency in 

the consumer’s submission as required 

in paragraph (e)(2) of this section. 

(f) Notification to consumer of actions 

taken in response to the consumer’s 

submission—(1) In general. A consumer 

reporting agency must provide written 

or electronic notice to a consumer of 

actions performed in response to a 

consumer’s submission no later than 

five business days after a final 

determination on a consumer’s 

submission under paragraph (e)(3) of 

this section (or, if rescinding a 

previously applied block, five business 

days after rescinding under paragraph 

(e)(4) of this section). The consumer 

reporting agency must use the method 

of contact specified by the consumer in 

paragraph (b)(6)(ii)(B) of this section. 

(2) Contents. The notice must include 

the following: 

(i) A statement that the review of the 

submission is completed; 

(ii) A statement of the outcome of the 

submission, including the reason(s) if 

the consumer reporting agency declined 

to block the adverse information 

identified by the consumer, or rescinded 

such a block, under paragraph (e)(4) of 

this section; 

(iii) A consumer report, provided at 

no cost to the consumer, that is based 

upon the consumer’s revised file (if 

applicable) as a result of the consumer’s 

submission; 

(iv) A description of the procedure 

used to determine the outcome; 

(v) A method for contacting the 

consumer reporting agency to appeal the 

determination or revise the submission 

to cure any of the noted reasons for 

declining to block the adverse 

information identified by the consumer; 

and 

(vi) The web page consumers can use 

to submit complaints to the Consumer 

Financial Protection Bureau. 

(g) Record retention. For a period of 

seven years after the consumer’s 

submission is received at the mailing or 

website address made available under 

paragraph (d)(1) of this section, a 

consumer reporting agency must retain 

evidence of all such submissions and 

compliance with this section, including 

the actions taken by the consumer 

reporting agency under paragraphs (e)(1) 

through (e)(3), and (f) of this section and 

the reasons provided under paragraph 

(e)(4) of this section for declining to 

block or rescinding any block of items 

of adverse information identified by the 

consumer. 

(h) Policies and procedures to ensure 

and maintain compliance. A consumer 

reporting agency must establish and 

maintain written policies and 

procedures reasonably designed to 

ensure and monitor the compliance of 

the consumer reporting agency and its 

employees with the requirements of the 

paragraphs in this section. These 

written policies and procedures must be 

appropriate to the nature, size, 

complexity, and scope of the activities 

of the consumer reporting agency and 

its employees. 

Rohit Chopra, 

Director, Consumer Financial Protection 

Bureau. 

[FR Doc. 2022–13671 Filed 6–23–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4810–AM–P 


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