Category Archives: Credit Reporting

Study: Color and Credit: Race, Regulation, and the Quality of Financial Services

Taylor A. Begley of Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis and Amiyatosh Purnanandam of Ross School of Business, University of Michigan have written Color and Credit: Race, Regulation, and the Quality of Financial Services. Here is the abstract: The incidence of mis-selling, fraud, and poor customer service by retail banks is significantly higher in markets […]

Maybe It DOES Matter if the CFPB Looks into the Equifax Breach–and the CFPB Says It Is Doing So

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday I expressed doubt about whether it matters if the CFPB backs off on investigating Equifax. Now I'm wondering if I was wrong to do so.  I hadn't given enough thought to the CFPB's supervisory responsibilities over collection bureaus. Vox has an article which reports: A CFPB spokesperson said in an email to […]

Does the CFPB’s Putting the Equifax Probe on Ice Matter?

by Jeff Sovern The answer to the question is that I'm not sure it does. Brian reported earlier today that Reuters is saying that the CFPB has put its Equifax probe on ice. But Reuters also reports that Equifax says it is under investigation by every state AG, that the FTC is investigating, and that […]

Trump Administration Seems Likely to Weaken CRA Rules

by Jeff Sovern The WSJ has an interesting story out, Trump Administration Seeks to Change Rules on Bank Lending to the Poor, that reports: Community groups say the law should be expanded in order to bring opportunity to more low-income areas, while banks say they would do a better job of helping these people if the […]

Report that Mulvaney CFPB Stafffer Lobbied Against CFPB Discrimination Protections Before Joining CFPB

The report comes from Allied Progress. Excerpt: Just before the holiday break, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) “Acting Director” Mick Mulvaney announced that several of his senior staff from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would be taking on leadership roles at the CFPB. That list included his chief of staff Emma Doyle. What […]

Credit Bureau Industry Still Seeking Caps on Damages After Equifax Breach

by Jeff Sovern Much has been made of the fact that the day the Equifax breach became public, Congress held a hearing on bills that would have limited damages credit bureaus would have to pay for misconduct.  This past Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing titled Consumer Data Security and the Credit Bureaus […]

More Tough Talk in the Senate About the Equifax Data Breach; Will It Lead to Changes in the Law?

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on consumer data security. The Hill covered it, in a report headlined Senators bear down on credit reporting industry over data security.  Here is an excerpt: “If they lose my data as Equifax did, or if someone submits to them data that is an error […]