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New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

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drkaje
Senior Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities


@CS800 wrote:

How would the FICO formula even know what ethnicity someone is?

 

I dont get the logic behind this article. I can understand if they say there is some discrimination on certain applications but any lender gets teh same FICO score from e-oscar.

 

Again maybe im not getting the whole point here.


Point is the economy ain't bouncing back.

 


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Message 31 of 58
cubiclemonkey
New Member

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

" evidently our government is going to target FICO scores as being biased against minorities."

 

Where does it say that in the article? 

Message 32 of 58
marty56
Super Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities


@cubiclemonkey wrote:

" evidently our government is going to target FICO scores as being biased against minorities."

 

Where does it say that in the article? 


 

There was a reference to bias in a Washington Post article. The fear is that the government will come up with a FICO version of the CRA.

1/25/2021: FICO 850 EQ 848 TU 847 EX
Message 33 of 58
cakkd
Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

There's a big difference between a fear that the government will do something and the government is "going to" do something, no? 

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Message 34 of 58
marty56
Super Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities


@cakkd wrote:

There's a big difference between a fear that the government will do something and the government is "going to" do something, no? 


Welcome to the forum.

 

 

I would take the bet that the government involved in credit scoring any day of the year.

1/25/2021: FICO 850 EQ 848 TU 847 EX
Message 35 of 58
cakkd
Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

"I would take the bet that the government involved in credit scoring any day of the year."

 

Wuh? Is involved or will be involved?

 

"Going to" implies a definite plan. I don't see anything about a definite plan in this article. 

Starting scores (June 9,2012): 591(TU), 582(EXP), 591(EQUI)
Current score: 721 (Discover Fico)
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Message 36 of 58
cakkd
Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

It seems like unfounded alarmism by the same people who hang the financial crisis on the CRA.

Starting scores (June 9,2012): 591(TU), 582(EXP), 591(EQUI)
Current score: 721 (Discover Fico)
Goal scores: 761 across the board
Message 37 of 58
drkaje
Senior Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

Shortening the CRTP would help a lot of people.


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Message 38 of 58
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities

YES! But who do you think is underwriting your loan app?? These are physical people who know all your demographis information!!

Message 39 of 58
cakkd
Contributor

Re: New Bias Charges Against FICO Scores ..... unfair to minorities


@lithium78 wrote:

I'm white, but I work in education in a school entirely composed of African American and Hispanic students from a disadvantaged socio-economic background.  From what I've learned, financial illiteracy is a serious community problem for these students.  Because their families make so little income, they have learned to shun banks because they can't maintain the minimum balances or meet the requirements for free checking.  They would constantly overdraw their accounts by accident and have to pay massive fees each time.  Instead, they rely on prepaid debit cards and an entire industry exists to prey on them.  In particular, Russell Simmons' "Rushcards" exploit them with huge fees for every possible action they can use it for.

 

Since their parents and grandparents have all dealt with the same issues as the students, they have no role models for good personal finance.  They pay cash for everything, because nobody teaches them about handling credit.  They end up carrying large amounts of cash or hiding large amounts of cash in their homes and they face the constant threat of someone stealing their money.  For protection, they join gangs and then they end up becoming aggressors to steal cash from their peers.

 

In school, math classes focus on advanced engineering-type math that has very little practical use, because this is what the state tests for.  There are no real-world life skills classes, because all education today is focused on passing state-mandated exams, which determine schools' funding.  There is no place in school to teach students like mine how to handle credit and checking accounts so they can escape the endless cycle of deprivation and violence.

 

Fixing the credit of disadvantaged minorities is a difficult task, because it would require changing an entire culture of poverty in the inner-city.

Great post, Lithium. If the CRA had any involvement in the financial meltdown at all, it was that it taught lenders that some traditionally sub-prime categories of borrowers weren't as high risk as previously thought, and there was a market for them. The problem is, lenders took this and ran with it, and expanded to folks who had no business buying a home, or no business buying a home at the price and the conditions of their loan. So, a disproportionate number of minorities were given unsustainable mortgages. No worry for the lender, they could sell the mortgage immediately, have it bundled up and securitized and pasted with a triple A rating. 
If the federal government does indeed do something, it will likely be along the lines of more credit education for minority and lower-income consumers.

 

 

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Current score: 721 (Discover Fico)
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Message 40 of 58
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