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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

CFPB reviews removal of public records from credit reports

Consumer Finance CFPB Credit Reporting Agency

Consumer Finance

On February 22, the CFPB released a report finding that the removal of public records from consumer credit reports may have had an effect on consumers’ credit scores. The report reviewed the impact of the civil public records minimum information standards established pursuant to the National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP) – an initiative launched by the top three U.S. credit reporting agencies (CRAs) as a result of settlement agreements between the CRAs and over 30 state attorneys general. Starting in July 2017, the NCAP required public records furnished to the CRAs to include a name, address, and social security number and/or date of birth and required the records be refreshed every 90 days. According to the report, prior to the NCAP, six percent of consumers had a civil judgment or tax lien on their credit report; and after the NCAP implementation, the CFPB found that only 1.4 percent of consumers had a tax lien on their credit report and zero consumers had civil judgments. However, the report notes that while there was a significant drop in the overall reporting of public records, only six percent of those affected by the NCAP new reporting requirements, experienced an increase from “deep subprime or subprime credit scores in June before the standards took effect and rose to near prime or above in September.” The CFPB noted in a blog release that the Bureau cannot assess scoring-model accuracy because it requires two years of data following the implementation of new standards to perform the analysis.