New York AG Obtains Agreement From Bank To Alter Customer Account Screening

State Attorney General Deposit Products

On June 16, New York Attorney General (AG) Eric Schneiderman announced that a national bank agreed to adopt new policies governing its use of a credit bureau that screens individuals seeking to open checking or savings accounts. The agreement is the first to come out of the AG’s ongoing investigation of the use of credit bureaus by major American banks. As the basis for its investigation, the AG’s office asserts that individuals who are deemed by one of these credit bureaus to present a credit or fraud risk are typically denied the opportunity to open an account, and that these credit bureau databases “disproportionately affect lower-income Americans, often punishing them for relatively small financial errors and forcing them to resort to fringe banking services that are more costly than mainstream checking and savings accounts.” According to the AG’s press release, under the terms of the agreement, the bank will continue screening customers for past fraud but will no longer seek to predict whether customers present credit risks. The bank also committed to expand its support for the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE)—a New York City agency that provides financial education and counseling to low-income New Yorkers—by donating $50,000 to help OFE provide counseling for applicants who are rejected by the bank on the basis of a credit bureau report. The bank plans to implement the changes nationwide.