In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule that bans the inclusion of medical bills on credit reports. It also prohibits lenders from using medical information in their lending decisions. According to the CFPB’s research, the existence of a medical bill on a person’s credit report is a poor predictor of his or her ability to repay a loan.  

The rule aims to “increase privacy protections and prevent debt collectors from using the credit reporting system to coerce people to pay bills they don’t owe.” Lenders will still be permitted to consider medical information for certain legitimate purposes, such as verifying medical expenses that will be paid with a loan. 

Watch out for FinCEN-related fraud schemes 

In a recent alert, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) warned of fraud schemes “abusing FinCEN’s name, insignia and authorities for financial gain.” FinCEN asks financial institutions to report suspicious activities and urges customers to be vigilant.  

For example, one scheme targets companies trying to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN. A scammer may attempt to convince a company to pay a filing fee to submit the company’s BOI report to FinCEN. The scammer then pockets the money but doesn’t file the report. Sensitive information about the company, including details about its owners and officers, also may be stolen from the report and exploited for fraud or other malicious purposes. 

Scammers may contact targeted companies via text message, email or U.S. mail. In some cases, they use names similar to FinCEN or pose as government agencies, such as “United States Business Regulations Department” or “Annual Records Service.” 

Banks urged to combat elder fraud 

The federal banking agencies recently published an interagency statement to “raise awareness and provide strategies to supervised institutions for combating elder financial exploitation, consistent with applicable legal requirements.” 

Potential strategies include: 

• Implementing policies and practices — such as risk-based policies, internal controls, employee codes of conduct, ongoing transaction monitoring practices and complaint processes — to better protect account holders and institutions from the elder financial exploitation, 

• Providing clear, comprehensive and recurring training to help employees recognize and respond to elder financial exploitation, 

• Using transaction holds and disbursement delays, in compliance with applicable laws, to prevent consumer losses and respond to situations that may involve elder financial exploitation, and 

• Establishing policies and procedures that enable account holders to designate one or more trusted contacts that employees can contact about elder financial exploitation suspicions. 

In addition, institutions may be required to file suspicious activity reports when elder fraud is suspected and should consider reporting suspected fraud to the authorities. (In some states, this is required.)