In re Santander Consumer USA Inc.

Santander Consumer USA Inc. (Santander) (defendant) was a consumer-finance company that financed many retail installment contracts and lease contracts for vehicles purchased or leased from car dealerships. Santander provided information regarding consumers’ credit to consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) by sending monthly data files. In more than 23 million instances between 2016 and 2019, the date of first delinquency (DOFD) for an account was listed incorrectly, usually instead listing the date of account information, which was the date that month’s information was pulled from Santander’s systems. At least one CRA informed Santander multiple times of such errors between 2015 and 2019. Further, two internal Santander audits in 2016 revealed that Santander was reporting DOFDs on accounts that were not in fact delinquent. Another internal audit in 2016 concluded that Santander lacked sufficient policies and procedures regarding the accuracy of information reported to CRAs. Despite awareness of the issues with its reported information, Santander did not correct the inaccurate information provided to CRAs. Further, it continued to provide similarly inaccurate information to CRAs for several years. In 2020, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (bureau) reviewed Santander’s reporting practices and initiated an administrative proceeding against Santanger alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Regulation V, which was one of the regulations implementing the FCRA. Settlement negotiations between the parties resulted in the bureau’s issuance of a consent order.