[Chris]

A staff member has inquired on whether he can pull a credit report for a very specific situation. The client has a revocable trust account with us, 2 checking accounts, and a credit card (through a third party that we use). The client does not have a loan with us at the present.

The trustee is her son. The son is suspicious that another sibling is misusing the client’s money (if proven, this would possibly warrant a case of elder abuse). The son (trustee) has requested us to pull a credit report on his mother to see if the other sibling has taken out any new accounts / loans in the mother’s name.

I’m inclined to think this does not fall under any of the FCRA permissible purposes, but wanted to put a feeler out for other opinions in case anyone has encountered such a scenario.

Thanks for your help.

[rcooper]

I agree with your thoughts, Chris. This does not meet a permissible purpose for pulling an credit report. If you pull a report for non-permissible purpose it could potentially void your contract with the credit bureau(s) and cause substantial issues for your financial institution.

If elder abuse is actually occurring, or has occurred, it is unfortunate and needs to be addressed. Your staff should be aware of warning signs and potential actions to take to help the victim. The CFPB has issued guidance on elder abuse (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-issues-advisory-and-report-for-financial-institutions-on-preventing-elder-financial-abuse/) and there is also interagency guidance (https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2013/interagency-guidance-on-privacy-laws-and-reporting-financial-abuse-of-older-adults.pdf?source=govdelivery).

You want to ensure that in this particular case, since the son of the potential victim is also an employee, that a non-family member employee is in charge of assessing and helping to manage the issue. And you can encourage your customer to access free copies of her credit report on an annual basis to ensure there is no fraudulent activity – this is a sound practice for anyone.

I hope this helps.

[Chris]

Thanks for the response, Robin. My apologies if the original post wasn’t clear, but the son of the elderly consumer is not an employee of our Bank – he is a close friend with an employee of our bank. The struggle here is that the elderly consumer is suffering from dementia / Alzheimer’s, so the option to pull her own credit report is complicated by that issue and her lack of understanding regarding current matters in her life.

Would it make a difference if one of the children had Power of Attorney, and requested the institution to pull the report? (Would that be a “permissible purpose,” utilizing a POA as the person requesting?)

[rcooper]

As the power of attorney the son should be able to request copies of his mother’s credit report from the credit reporting agencies.

[Author]

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