CFPB publishes quarterly report examining how natural disasters affect credit reporting

Federal Issues CFPB Mortgages Credit Report Disaster Relief

On November 21, the CFPB released the latest quarterly consumer credit trends report, which examines how natural disasters affect consumers’ credit reports based on a sample of approximately 5 million credit records. The report notes that while financial institutions are not required to report natural disaster assistance information, in 2017, about 8.3 percent of consumer credit reports included information in a special comment code labeled “affected by natural or declared disasters,” which the CFPB states is similar to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s estimate that roughly 8 percent of U.S. residents were affected by natural disasters in 2017. Additionally, the report summarizes the natural disaster reporting trends for consumers in the Greater Houston area affected by Hurricane Harvey. Highlights of the report include (i) almost 40 percent of consumers with a credit report in the Greater Houston area received a comment code regarding the hurricane after it hit; (ii) the most common type of tradeline to receive a natural disaster comment code are mortgage loans; and (iii) accounts that received the natural disaster comment code are associated with higher rates of delinquency prior to Hurricane Harvey.