Consumer protection legislation enacted in 1968 as part of the Consumer Credit Protection Act to ensure that the banking system in the United States would have a reliable credit reporting system. The stated purpose of the Fair Credit Reporting Act was to require that consumer reporting agencies adopt reasonable procedures to meet the needs of commerce for consumer credit, personnel, insurance, and other information that was fair and equitable to the consumer with respect to the confidentiality, accuracy, relevancy and proper utilization of such information. One of the most prominent requirements of the Act was to establish the permissible purposes of the information contained in a consumer report.

In 2003 Congress updated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it passed the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act, FACT Act. FACT made significant changes and expansions to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. See Fair Credit Reporting Act.