In a letter to House leadership today, the American Bankers Association expressed its opposition for H.R. 5332. Introduced by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), the Protecting Your Credit Score Act of 2020 is scheduled to be considered this week. While well-intentioned, ABA noted, the current text of the bill would “make credit reports less predictive and useful by promoting the elimination of negative but accurate information that will weaken the underwriting process and thus increase borrowers’ costs and reduce people’s ability to get loans.”
ABA added that the bill would allow courts to award injunctive relief, which could lead to questionable lawsuits and inconsistent interpretations. The association added that the Fair Credit Reporting Act already provides consumers with strong dispute rights and a framework for promptly resolving such disputes.
“H.R. 5332 will make it even easier than it is today for individuals to flood consumer reporting agencies and furnishers of information with false claims of inaccuracies that must be resolved in a timely fashion or deleted,” the association wrote. “The resulting degradation of the reports will reduce the ability of lenders to evaluate an applicant’s creditworthiness and ability to repay, which in turn will increase what consumers pay for credit and make it harder for many consumers, especially the underserved, to get credit.”
