CFPB - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
01/17/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/17/2025 10:40
Enforcement Action (American Honda Finance Corporation)
On January 17, 2025, the Bureau issued an order against American Honda Finance Corporation (Honda Finance) to address its violations relating to its furnishing of inaccurate consumer reporting information. Honda Finance is a nonbank and the captive automotive finance company for American Honda Motor Co., Inc., which is the sole authorized distributor of Honda and Acura motor vehicles in the United States. Honda Finance's practices violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), its implementing regulation, Regulation V, and the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA). The Bureau found that, during the COVID-19 crisis, Honda Finance allowed consumers to defer payments and promised to continue reporting those consumers to the consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) as current, but instead, reported those consumers as delinquent when they did not make payments during the deferral period, in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The Bureau also found that Honda Finance violated FCRA and its implementing Regulation V by continuing to furnish inaccurate and incomplete information after it determined the information was incomplete or inaccurate; failing to timely complete indirect dispute investigations and report the results of the investigations to CRAs; failing to establish and implement reasonable written policies and procedures regarding the accuracy and integrity of the information it furnished to CRAs; and failing to conduct reasonable investigations of direct disputes and timely report the results to consumers. The Bureau's order requires Honda Finance to come into compliance with the law, pay $10.3 million in consumer redress, and pay a $2.5 million civil money penalty to the Bureau.