What is the Metro-2 Credit Reporting Format?
By Jay Fleischman, New York Bankruptcy Lawyer on Aug 9, 2007 in General Bankruptcy Information
Creditors, debt collectors and debt buyers who furnish consumer credit account data on a regular basis to credit reporting agencies have duties under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to correct and update that consumer credit history information.
To assist data furnishers, (such as banks, credit unions, consumer credit card companies, retailers, and auto finance companies) in this process, the Credit Data Industry Association, the trade group representing the credit reporting industry, adopted a standard electronic data reporting format called the Metro 2 Format. The Metro 2 format was created in order to comply with the 1996 amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act and is designed to allow reporting of the most accurate and complete information on consumers’ credit history.
Designed to foster the reporting of complete and accurate data to the credit reporting agencies, the Metro 2 Format also addresses FCRA compliance. Metro 2 has become the industry standard for reporting debtor information.
The Metro2 format facilitates complete and greater accuracy of reporting of data and provides the following features:
- The Metro 2 format is designed to be easier to use and understand;
- provides one standard computer format to be used for reporting accurate, complete and timely consumer credit information;
- meets all requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA);
- allows for reporting information at both the account and consumer levels;
- allows reporting on debtors that “cannot be located”;
- allows reporting of deferred payments and “associate” borrowers/debtors information;
- Identification numbers can be changed to accommodate transfer or sale of debt (asset sales); and,
- the format accommodates a 4-digit “year” field to accommodate reporting in the year 2000 and beyond.
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