| Entities | |
| Topics and Issues | COVID-19 (41) Disputes (45) |
In May 2022, the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis issued a press release noting that its chair, U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC), “sent letters to the [CEOs] of the three largest Nationwide Consumer Reporting Agencies (NCRAs)—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—requesting information on their decreased responsiveness to consumer complaints about credit reporting errors during the pandemic.”
Letters went to Mark Begor, CEO of Equifax, Brian Cassin, CEO of Experian, and Chris Cartwright, CEO of TransUnion. The press release noted that
The coronavirus pandemic created new avenues for introducing errors into credit reports. For example, lenders may have incorrectly reported some student loans and other loans with paused payments as late despite a CARES Act requirement that these loans be reported as current. The pandemic also coincided with an increase in identity theft, which can result in the introduction of erroneous information onto consumers’ credit reports. Inaccuracies in consumer credit reports can have serious, long-term consequences for consumers, such as blocking access to permanent housing or preventing small businesses from obtaining much-needed lines of credit.
Even as the risk of credit reporting inaccuracies increased during the pandemic—a risk that the NCRAs acknowledged by making reports available weekly rather than annually—the companies have reportedly become significantly less responsive to consumer complaints about potential inaccuracies. Certain changes made by NCRAs early in the pandemic, including the use of form letters to respond to complaints and diversion of complaints to a “dispute channel,” likely contributed to this decrease. Only 4.1% of complaints received relief, such as a correction of the reported error, in 2021, down from nearly 25% of complaints in 2019.