WHITE HOUSE--As the House Financial Services subcommittee prepared for its hearing Thursday on promoting access to credit, America’s Credit Unions weighed in on legislation facing the committee.
The organization sent a letter outlining support and recommendations to ensure financial institutions have as accurate information as possible when making credit decisions.
The letter notes regulatory changes should focus on commonsense efforts, fully consider the impact on all consumers, be tailored so they are not overly burdensome on credit unions, and promote a more accurate, full picture of consumers’ credit, adding “consumers lose when their credit union must divert resources to keep up with overly burdensome regulations designed for big banks.”
The letter also shares support for related bills, including:
- The FCRA Liability Harmonization Act (H.R 5775), to align the FCRA with other financial consumer protection laws, helping protect credit unions from abusive litigation practices while sustaining consumer protections
- The Ending Scam Credit Repair Act (H.R. 306), to help protect consumers from exploitive credit repair organizations
It also generally supports two additional bills to be covered in the hearing, the Credit Access and Inclusion Act (H.R. 5402) and the Eliminating Fraud in the CFPB’s Complaint Database Act (H.R. 7588). Both would promote accurate reporting and access to credit.
It also adds recent CFPB consideration of amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to remove medical debt would ultimately harm lenders and consumers due to a less-than-complete picture of a credit history.