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| Topics and Issues | Accuracy (39) Disputes (45) |
On Nov. 10, 2021, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), “urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to take concrete steps to reform the credit reporting industry. Specifically, the senators urged Director Rohit Chopra to use the CFPB’s existing supervisory, rulemaking, and enforcement authority over the largest nationwide consumer reporting agencies, in order to improve the accuracy of credit reports, streamline the dispute resolution process, and hold consumer reporting agencies accountable for addressing persistent errors.”
In a letter to the CFPB, the senators
ask that [the CFPB] evaluate persistent errors in credit reporting and how CRAs consistently fail to resolve these errors, especially by failing to devote sufficient personnel and resources for dispute resolution—a shortcoming the CFPB could use its supervisory authority to remedy. You should also consider creating an ombudsperson position at the CFPB to facilitate the dispute resolution process and help ensure accuracy. CRAs engage in concerning practices that contribute to inaccuracies, including using partial Social Security numbers to match data from an information furnisher to a consumer’s file. We were encouraged by CFPB’s recent advisory opinion affirming that the practice of matching consumer records solely through the matching of names is illegal. Any additional action the CFPB takes could, with appropriate privacy and security measures, also require nationwide CRAs to instead match all nine digits of a consumer’s Social Security number. We also ask that you consider requiring nationwide CRAs to perform periodic accuracy audits on information furnishers. Additionally, we ask that you review the potential to codify provisions of the nationwide CRAs’ settlement with state attorneys general that delayed reporting of medical debt for six months and removed debts paid by insurance. Finally, algorithmic bias presents a risk of amplifying racial disparities in credit reporting, and a failure to provide reports in Spanish and other languages can impact consumers with limited English proficiency. We request that you require CRAs to address these concerns to ensure the credit reporting system equitably serves all consumers