@coterotie wrote:
Buddy of mine just got elected to Congress. I am nearly motivated enough to put together a package for him about the whole credit score business. Back in the day when I was a banker and he was a banking lawyer, your credit worthiness didn't revolve around an artifically derived number. We put some effort into determing ability to pay etc. You could also look at the same information that the lender looked at and shopping a deal didn't negatively impact you.
I firmly believe that the models should be publicly available if they are going to use the information to grant credit. Otherwise it is discriminatory and likely predatory.
Back in the day, getting a Credit bureau report would tell you why you didn't get credit. Now having all credit decisions based on a score which you have to pay to obtain and the algorithm used to derive the score is kept as a secret just doesn't cut it.
Legislation has been introduced in the 113th Congress, but I doubt it goes anywhere - after a year it only has 15 Co-Sponsors and they are all DEMS - House is not controled by DEMS, meaning few minority party bills get advanced.
Summary: H.R.1002 — 113th Congress (2013-2014)
Fair Access to Credit Scores Act of 2013 - Amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require certain consumer reporting agencies to disclose, without charge, as part of a consumer's free annual disclosure upon request, a current credit score generated using the scoring methodology most frequently used to generate scores sold to creditors, including information regarding other risk scores or predictors in the consumer's file.
Requires the agencies also to furnish such other consumer information as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) considers appropriate with respect to consumer financial education, including where the consumer's credit score falls with respect to a range of possible credit scores, and the general factors contributing to the credit scores of consumers.
Requires such agencies, upon consumer request for either a credit score or a risk score, to supply any such score in the consumer's file at the agency. Requires the agencies to maintain credit scores or other risk scores or predictors in the consumer's file for at least one year after the data is generated. Directs the CFPB to develop regulations establishing a mandatory format for consumer file disclosures
