WASHINGTON–The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a report that states data are “insufficient” for evaluating the extent to which the removal of civil public records from consumer credit reports affected the “predictiveness” of commercial credit scoring models.
In its quarterly report on consumer credit trends, the CFPB said the effect on predictiveness following the removal of the civil public records – which was part of 2015’s “National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP)” initiative launched by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – could not be analyzed “because we do not have 24 months of data following the implementation of the new standards.”
The study is centered on NCAP, which the report defined as “an initiative aimed at enhancing the accuracy of credit reports and making it easier for consumers to correct errors on their credit reports.”
NCAP resulted from settlement agreements between the credit reporting agencies and more than 30 state attorneys general that required the companies to create minimum standards for personally identifiable information and reporting frequency for civil public records, including bankruptcies, civil judgments, and tax liens.
Starting July 1, 2017, public record data furnished to the credit reporting agencies for inclusion on credit reports had to contain name, address, and Social Security number and/or date of birth, and had to be refreshed at least every 90 days.
The CFPB report had been intended to investigate how those changes affected the credit files of affected consumers, but the agency said there has been insufficient time passed to draw any conclusions.