This report from the SBPC and Berger Montague attorney John Albanese examines how creditors, including student loan companies, routinely furnish inaccurate information to consumer reporting agencies like Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Yet the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA—the federal law intended to protect consumers from inaccurate credit reports—has been interpreted by the Courts over the past two decades to provide no mechanism for borrowers to directly hold companies accountable when they introduce inaccurate information into the credit reporting system.
The report highlights a 2020 lawsuit brought by the author, along with the SBPC and Towards Justice, as an example of how a creditor can damage the credit reports of millions of people and escape legal consequences due to procedural barriers put in place by Congress, regulators, and the courts that have stymied efforts to hold companies accountable. To fix this, the report offers a series of steps that regulators, particularly the CFPB and the FTC can take to strengthen the implementation of the FCRA, expand access to justice for consumers, and ensure that the companies providing information on consumers’ credit reports do so fairly and accurately.
Read the Report: Big Data & Big Errors: Why Giving Furnishers a Free Pass Undermines the Credit Reporting System and Denies Consumers Access to Justice
Read the Blog: When Financial Companies get a Free Pass, Big Data Leads to Big Errors