Ginger Chouinard of New Mexico has written The 'Other' Credit Report: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You. Here's the abstract: Nearly 90% of financial institutions use ChexSystems or similar account screening reports in their account opening process, yet they are under no duty to disclose this to consumers until an account is denied due […]
Category Archives: Credit Reporting
Raymond H. Brescia of Albany has written The Community Reinvestment Act: Guilty, but Not as Charged. Here's the abstract: Since its passage in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has charged federal bank regulators with "encourag[ing]" certain financial institutions "to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered consistent […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. The first two sentences say: The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has told at least four banks that it may sue them over vehicle loans and interest-rate markups by auto dealers that appear discriminatory, according to three people briefed on the matter. The banks received letters from the CFPB last week […]
Victimized by Credit Reports. An excerpt: Given the evidence, it is imperative that the federal government do more to make the credit-reporting process transparent and to protect consumers from errors that can drive up their borrowing costs and cause them to be denied jobs or be turned away by landlords. * * * * * […]
by Jeff Sovern The Wall Street Journal has the story here. Previously the grade had been outstanding. The other three giant US banks retain ratings of outstanding. Two thoughts: If JP Morgan Chase undertakes new lending to improve its rating, that will say something about the importance of the Community Reinvestment Act in spurring banks […]
So the Times reports here.
by Jeff Sovern Here. Two points from the Executive Summary, though there's quite a bit more than this: The NCRAs have created an automated system for handling consumer disputes and forwarding them to data furnishers. Through this automated system – called e-OSCAR – the NCRAs provide furnishers with one or two numeric codes indicating the […]
by Jeff Sovern One of the groups, the Woodstock Institute, has a report here. Among the reasons given are Wells Fargo's payday lending practices. The following excerpt from the Woodstock report has more: "Wells Fargo's mortgage servicing practices unfairly push some borrowers into foreclosure, devastating families and harming neighborhoods. Our clients continue to have their […]
by Jeff Sovern For the credit reporting section of our casebook, I've been looking into studies of credit report errors. The FTC is in the process of conducting a long-term study of that subject, and along the way has conducted some pilot studies. One such pilot study subjected the credit reports of 128 people to in-depth […]
United States v. Bormes is the Supreme Court's first opinion of the term. It deals with the question of where to look to determine whether the government has waived sovereign immunity in FCRA cases. SCOTUS Blog coverage can be found here.