* Credit reporting agencies must provide free credit freezes and notify consumers of their availability. 

* Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac can consider a borrower's credit score when purchasing a residential mortgage only if certain procedural requirements are met with respect to validation and approval of credit-scoring models. The Federal Housing Finance Agency will be required to establish standards and criteria for this process. 

* Any securities qualified for national trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and authorized to be listed on a national securities exchange are exempt from state-level registration requirements; this is a change from current law, under which only certain securities specified by statute or SEC rule are exempt. 

* Venture capital funds with no more than 250 investors and less than $10 million in aggregate capital contributions and uncalled committed capital are exempt from being defined as "investment companies." 

* The 12-month sales threshold at which an issuer must provide investors with additional disclosures related to compensatory benefit plans has increased from $5 million to $10 million. 

* The bill expands the number of issuers that can take advantage of Regulation A+, which exempts smaller offerings from securities registration requirements. 

* People can request the removal of a previously reported student loan default from their report if the lender chooses to offer a loan-rehabilitation program that requires a number of consecutive on-time monthly payments demonstrating renewed ability and willingness to repay the loan, and the consumer meets those requirements. A consumer may obtain such rehabilitation benefits only once per loan.