Ben McLawhorn
Know that Mr. McLawhorn is "unthrilled" to be mentioned twice in this blog; but need to make one more point about the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and it's prohibition against snooping around credit reports without a business purpose ... i.e., it's illegal.
✅ It would appear the answer is unequivocally "Yes". How so?
✅ Because the SECU Board "unanimously" approved the following in its New Election Procedures (April 13, 2023):
"2. Candidate Information. Members may email the Assistant Corporate Secretary at board.corporate.secretary@ncsecu.org to request a State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Director Candidate Questionnaire, Certification of Information, and Notification and Authorization Form for Employment Consumer Report (together, the “Candidate Package”) and submit them to SECU by the deadline in the current year Election Procedures Schedule for forwarding to the Chair of the Nominating Committee. "
✅ As part of the approval process for selecting potential candidates for the Board of Directors, the SECU Board and Nominating Committee evidently want to review applicants credit reports and credit score (guess they want to make sure only "A-paper" type folks are at the Board table!).
✅ The SECU Board knew that legally the candidate had to give them written permission before a credit report could be requested by the Nominating Committee.
✅ As the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB) says:
"No one should request your credit report without a valid purpose allowed
by the law. Anyone who uses or obtains a copy of your credit report
under false pretenses may be subject to civil and criminal penalties."
... guess that's why you have three attorneys on the SECU Board... to make sure you don't break the law!
