On January 17, 2025, the CFPB ordered the American Honda Finance Corporation to pay $12.8 million for reporting inaccurate information that affected the credit reports of 300,000 people who drive Honda and Acura vehicles. Honda Finance is a nonbank automotive finance company for American Honda Motor Co., Inc., whose business is the purchase and servicing of loans and leases arranged by Honda and Acura dealerships.
The CFPB found that Honda Finance violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by:
Damaging borrowers’ credit reports during a national emergency. During the COVID-19 crisis, Honda Finance allowed consumers to defer payments but incorrectly reported those consumers as delinquent to credit reporting companies. Despite knowing some information was inaccurate, Honda Finance continued to provide false data, affecting around 300,000 consumers.
Failing to investigate disputes. Honda Finance inadequately investigated disputes about information provided to credit reporting companies and failed to send investigation results when required.
As a result, the CFPB ordered Honda Finance to:
Pay $10.3 million to harmed consumers and take steps to correct its prior erroneous reporting.
Pay a $2.5 million penalty to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.
Read the CFPB’s press release here.
The consent order can be found here.