Senate Banking Committee Holds Hearing on Fair Credit Reporting

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs met on July 12 for a hearing, “An Overview of the Credit Bureaus and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.” The committee and witnesses discussed a number of issues, including strategies to improve access to credit for low income households.

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) spoke about his bill, the “Credit Access and Inclusion Act of 2018” (S. 3040), which would allow public housing agencies and utility and telecommunications companies to report payment data to credit agencies. This proposal is the Senate companion bill to H.R. 435, which passed in the House earlier this month (see Memo, 7/2). Senators Doug Jones (D-AL) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) also supported the bill. Peggy Twohig, an assistant director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), noted that the recently created Office of Innovation at CFPB is researching alternative data in credit reporting.

More about the hearing is at: https://bit.ly/2KXFbBP