Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a final rule defining certain nonbank “larger participants” in markets for consumer financial products or services. The final rule is the first in a series of rulemakings defining larger participants in consumer financial markets and the final rule only applies to consumer reporting agency markets. The rule subjects larger participants in consumer reporting markets to the supervisory authority of the CFPB.

The rule will be effective on September 30, 2012 with the CFPB conducting the first supervisory examinations thereafter. The rule defines “larger participants” of the consumer reporting markets in terms of the combined annual receipts of the participant and any affiliate of the participant “resulting from” consumer reporting. The threshold for annual receipts triggering supervision for consumer reporting agencies is $7 million. Generally, the annual receipts threshold is measured by the average of the previous three years’ receipts.