Consumer credit rating companies, and the firms that feed them with consumer data, have been put on notice by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that they must do a better job addressing complaints and inaccuracies.

In a bulletin issued on Wednesday, companies that supply information to consumer reporting companies, also known as “furnishers,” will be under added scrutiny by the CFPB when they investigate disputes forwarded by the consumer reporting companies. An upgraded, electronic database is intended to better enable then to review information provided with disputes and documents submitted by consumers.

Consumers may file a dispute with a consumer reporting company about an incorrect or challenged item on their credit report. If they do, the consumer reporting company typically inform their furnisher of that dispute and forward all relevant materials.

An electronic system, known as “e-OSCAR,” is used by the three largest nationwide consumer reporting companies – Equifax Information Services, TransUnion, and Experian Information Solutions – to send information relating to consumer disputes to furnishers. In a December 2012 study, the CFPB flagged the fact that this system did not provide any means for credit reporting companies to forward to furnishers any documents submitted by consumers.

Since then, the CFPB has been working to ensure that the dispute system was improved. The “e-OSCAR” system has now been upgraded so that the three companies can now send furnishers any relevant dispute documents mailed in by consumers. The CFPB is also currently working to expand the capacity of the system.

With this national database in place and operational, the CFPB issued the notice to detail its ongoing expectations of how furnishers should comply with the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, particularly when it comes to investigations of consumer disputes.

The CFPB's expectations detailed by the CFPB include:

When a consumer files a dispute about a credit report item, companies need to be able to receive information about the dispute and must investigate the consumer's concerns.

Furnishers must report the results of the investigation to the consumer reporting company that sent the dispute originally.

Furnishers are required to report the results of the investigation to nationwide consumer reporting companies if those companies may have received inaccurate or incomplete credit information. Furnishers also have to modify, delete, or permanently block disputed information that is incomplete, inaccurate, or cannot be verified.

If the CFPB determines that a furnisher has engaged in any acts or practices that violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act or other federal consumer financial laws, it will take supervisory and enforcement actions, possibly including restitution to harmed consumers.

The CFPB accepts consumer complaints about credit reporting. If a consumer is dissatisfied with the resolution of a dispute with a consumer reporting company or if the consumer reporting company does not respond, consumers can submit a complaint with the Bureau.