Shelly Milgram’s employee opened, in Milgram’s name, a credit card with Chase and ran up tens of thousands of dollars in debt–then illegally accessed Milgram’s bank accounts and used them to partially pay off the monthly statements. When the scheme was discovered (with the employee later convicted of fraud), Milgram reported the fraud to Chase […]
Category Archives: Credit Reporting
American Banker’s Penny Crosman has the story here (behind a paywall but available on Lexis), based on remarks at the Fintech Nexus conference. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra also spoke about how he wants to make it easier for consumers to switch banks so they can more readily take advantage of better prices or service and […]
Amiyatosh Purnanandam, and Alexander Wirth, both of the University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, have written Can Credit Rating Affect Credit Risk? Causal Evidence from an Online Lending Marketplace. Here’s the abstract: Credit rating is determined by a borrower’s credit risk, but can the rating in itself change a borrower’s credit risk in […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to know more about data brokers and their practices, as these entities gather and sell consumers’ personal and private information. The CFPB requests public feedback including information about the entities that collect personal consumer data, the types of data collected, sources that data brokers use to collect information, their […]
A recent Washington Post article looks at “a big, fat map of credit scores reproduced from a recent economics paper” and finds “any number of tantalizing questions.” But “most intrigu[ing]” is “that big band of credit-score calamity that stretches across the American South”: “Almost every corner of America’s most populous region — every race, every […]
Following a year of dramatic rent increases, growing scrutiny of tenant screening practices, and a general rise in housing insecurity, the White House recently issued a new Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights and announced new actions to bring more fairness to the rental housing market. In its declaration to promote tenants’ rights, the […]
by Jeff Sovern As I prepare to teach consumer law in the spring, I’m leaning towards adding a new case to the course, Bibbs v. TransUnion, LLC, 43 F.4th 331 (3rd Cir. 2022). First, take a look at what the court called a snapshot of the plaintiff’s credit report: Do you understand it (if […]
by Jeff Sovern New York Times reporter Emily Flitter's book The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America is an exploration of racism in American financial institutions, including banks, insurers, and brokerage houses. The book includes stories of how Black customers and employees are mistreated by these institutions, and places their treatment in a […]
Here, in an article by AnnaMaria Andriotis, an excellent reporter on consumer protection issues (behind paywall). The practice, known as credit washing, often leads to temporary removal of the damaging item from the consumer's credit report, and a correspondingly evanescent improvement in the consumer's credit score. Excerpt: Credit washing has slowed down the process of […]
Peter Conti-Brown of Penn’s Wharton School and the Brookings Institution and Brian D. Feinstein, also of Wharton have written Banking on a Curve: How to Restore the Community Reinvestment Act, Harvard Business Law Review, Forthcoming. Here’s the abstract: The federal government’s primary financial-regulatory tool for combating wealth inequality is broken. Intended to push banks towards deeper engagement […]