| Entities | Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (7) Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) (7) Florida (5) |
| Topics and Issues | Credit scores (37) |
In August 2022, A Wall Street Journal story noted that “[d]uring a three-week period this year, Equifax sent faulty scores to lenders, resulting in higher interest rates and denied applications.” The Journal story is Equifax Sent Lenders Inaccurate Credit Scores on Millions of Consumers (paywall). On June 1, 2022, Fannie Mae issued a bulletin on this, Selling Notice – Equifax Coding Error. Around the same time, Freddie Mac issued a similar bulletin, Equifax Coding Error Impacting Credit Scores and Data. In response to recent media stories, Equifax issued a statement, Statement on the Recent Coding Issue.
Following the August 2022 news accounts, that same month U. S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mark R. Warner (D-VA), and U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (R-IL) sent a letter to Equifax inquiring about the scoring issue and asking for additional information. Also in August, Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee “sent a letter to Equifax and a letter to the CEOs of the nation’s largest commercial banks, demanding answers as to how the delivery of erroneous credit scores occurred, the scale of consumers affected, and the steps these institutions are taking to remediate harm to customers and ensure accurate credit reporting moving forward.” This, according to a press release from the chairwoman. The chairwoman posted online a copy of the letter to Equifax, the letter to the CEOs of the nation’s largest commercial banks, and the letter to the CFPB. The letters to the commercial banks were sent to JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, U.S. Bancorp, The PNC Financial Services Group, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co., and Truist Financial Corporation
In August 2022, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Jimmy Patronis, issued a press release about the coding issue and sent a letter to Equifax. The letter “express[es] serious concern over [the] recent report in the Wall Street Journal outlining Equifax’s coding error…” and asks for additional information from the company.
The Wall Street Journal published an article, Worried About Your Equifax Credit Score? Here’s What to Do.