Sponsored by:
Senator M. TERESA RUIZ
District 29 (Essex)
Senator NELLIE POU
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires consumer reporting agencies to make credit reports available to consumers in Spanish and certain other languages.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning consumer reporting agencies and amending P.L.1997, c.172.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 7 of P.L.1997, c.172 (C.56:11-34) is amended to read as follows:
7. Every consumer reporting agency shall, upon request and proper identification of any consumer, clearly and accurately disclose to the consumer:
a. All information in the consumer's file at the time of the request.
b. The sources of the information; except that the sources of information acquired solely for use in preparing an investigative consumer report and actually used for no other purpose need not be disclosed: provided, that if an action is brought under this act or the federal "Fair Credit Reporting Act," such sources shall be available to the plaintiff under appropriate discovery procedures in the court in which the action is brought.
c. (1) The identification of each person, including each end-user identified under subsections d. and e. of section 5 of this act, who procured a consumer report:
(a) for employment purposes, during the two-year period preceding the date on which the request is made; or
(b) for any other purpose, during the one-year period preceding the date on which the request is made.
(2) An identification of a person under paragraph (1) shall include:
(a) the name of the person, or, if applicable, the trade name written in full under which the person conducts business; and
(b) upon request of the consumer, the address and telephone number of the person.
d. The dates, original payees, and amounts of any checks upon which is based any adverse characterization of the consumer, included in the file at the time of the disclosure.
e. A record of all inquiries received by the agency during the one-year period preceding the request that identified the consumer in connection with a credit or insurance transaction that was not initiated by the consumer.
The information subject to disclosure
pursuant to this section shall be made available to a consumer upon the
consumer’s request in Spanish or any other language that the Director of the
Division of Consumer Affairs determines is the first language of a significant
number of consumers in the State. This determination shall be, at
the discretion of the director, based on the numerical percentages of all consumers in the State for whom English or Spanish is not a first language or in a manner consistent with any regulations promulgated by the director for this purpose.
(cf: P.L.1997, c.172, s.7)
2. This act shall take effect on the 90th day next following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires consumer reporting agencies to make credit reports available to consumers in Spanish and certain other languages.
Specifically, the bill requires that the information subject to disclosure pursuant to the current credit reporting law to be made available to consumers upon request in Spanish and any other language that the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs determines is the first language of a significant number of consumers in the State. This determination is to be, at the discretion of the director, based on the numerical percentages of all consumers in the State for whom English or Spanish is not a first language or in a manner consistent with any regulations promulgated by the director for this purpose.