By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

Do you have 30 seconds today to save your credit union some hassle? I bet you do! A common area of non-compliance is found on the back of the adverse action notice. The form includes your federal regulatory agency contact information as a way for consumers who receive the notice to reach out if they have problems or questions.

Sounds easy enough, but NCUA has made a few changes in recent years to consolidate their regional offices and moved the contact to their federal Office of Consumer Protection. All federally chartered credit unions should have the following address on the back of your adverse action notices:

National Credit Union Administration
Office of Consumer Financial Protection
Division of Consumer Compliance Policy and Outreach
1775 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

What if you are state chartered? Then your federal oversight agency on this is the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). You can either have the regional office (out of Seattle for Montana credit unions) listed, or the more generic address below:

Federal Trade Commission
Consumer Response Center
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20580

While none of us like to throw out forms before they are all used up, this is a time you should. Be sure in checking your supply that you follow up with any dealerships that might also be providing an adverse action notice on your behalf.

The full list of agencies are available in Appendix A to Regulation B. If you want more detail on the adverse action notice requirements, this article summarizes it well.