CFPB Spring 2025 Regulatory Agenda – Prerule Stage – Identity Theft And Coerced Debt (Regulation V)

The CFPB is considering proposing amendments to Regulation V, which implements the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). to address concerns related to information furnished to consumer reporting agencies regarding coerced debt. This follows the CFPB's issuance of an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on December 13, 2024 to solicit information on amending the definitions of "identity theft" and "identity theft report," as well as other related amendments to Regulation V.

The current proposed rulemaking stems from a petition for rulemaking from the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice. The petition defines "coerced debt" as "all non-consensual, credit-related transactions that occur in a relationship where one person uses coercive control to dominate the other person." The petition requests that the CFPB take the following actions in the FCRA rulemaking:

• modify the definition of "identity theft" to include "without effective consent;"
• specify what constitutes effective consent and provide relief for persons with coerced debt to utilize the blocking of information resulting from identity theft;
• modify the definition of "identity theft report" to reflect the modified definition of "identity theft;" and
• clarify that no consumer reporting agency can refuse to block information under 15 U.S.C. §1681c-2(c)(1)(C) if the consumer is a victim of coerced debt.

To facilitate the proposed rulemaking, the advance notice sought comments on the following:

• The information that exists regarding the prevalence and extent of the harms to victims of economic abuse, particularly coerced debt,
• The extent to which current federal or state laws provide protections against adverse credit reporting to victims of economic abuse,
• The extent to which coerced debt reflects the credit risk of the survivor independent of the abuser,
• The cost and benefits of amending Regulation V,
• How "coerced debt" should be defined,
• Whether any other groups of persons face barriers from coerced debt that can be solved by rulemaking, and
• The documentation required to prove coerced debt.

The extended comment period ended on April 7, 2025. Fifty comments were submitted, including comments from consumers, the National Consumer Law Center, Illinois Credit Union League, America's Credit Unions, AARP, NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, Texas Council on Family Violence, Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, Oregon Justice Center, Greater Boston Legal Services, Receivables Management Association International, and a few credit unions. The CFPB's regulatory agenda targets May 2026 as the timeframe for the next step in the rulemaking. We expect this rule drafting to be a challenging task as regulators will need to ensure that debtors who are not victims of coercion will not be able to avail themselves of the protections intended to be offered to victims under these amendments.