ACA targets advocacy to Senate and House committees meeting on ARM issues this week, including the importance of credit reporting for consumers and businesses, and ensuring banks keep services available for all legitimate industries. Editor’s note: This article is available for members only.
5/27/2021 11:00
ACA International sent letters to Capitol Hill this week advocating on the importance of credit reporting and fair access to banking for companies in the accounts receivable management industry.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs met for a hearing, “Annual Oversight of Wall Street Firms,” with witnesses representing banks across the U.S. Wednesday, May 26.
ACA submitted a letter for the hearing reminding the committee of the continued impact of banking relationship terminations since Operation Choke Point.
“ACA’s members have been unfairly targeted by banks in Operation Choke Point and other similar efforts that have led to banking relationship terminations, including in the past few months,” said CEO Mark Neeb.
The U.S. Senate has introduced legislation, the Fair Access to Banking Act, which addresses these issues by ensuring that banks have a responsibility to make decisions about whether to provide a person with financial services based on impartial criteria, ACA previously reported.
“ACA believes this legislation is necessary because previous articulations of the fair access principle without the force and effect of law have been inadequate in deterring rogue examiners, as well as banks with political and agenda-driven ideologies,” Neeb said in the letter. “Allowing individuals to pick winners and losers in the financial services marketplace based on individual unresearched ideologies is a very dangerous slippery slope, not just for ACA members, but for all Americans. Accordingly, ACA asks that Congress consider these issues in both chambers and to hold banks that engage in unfair and discriminatory practices against legal and highly regulated businesses accountable for their actions.”
The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing, “Holding Megabanks Accountable: An Update on Banking, Practices, Programs and Policies,” May 27. ACA also sent a letter about the Fair Access Banking Act to the committee in advance of the hearing.
House Financial Services Committee Meets on Credit Reporting
The House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing focused on the accuracy of consumers’ credit reports and correcting errors on Wednesday, May 26.
Representatives of the three major credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, as well as the National Consumer Law Center and Hudson Cook LLP, an ACA member in Hanover, Maryland, will testify during the hearing, “Consumer Credit Reporting: Assessing Accuracy and Compliance.”
“ACA’s members take their compliance obligations, including those under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, very seriously,” Neeb said in a letter to the committee. “After exhausting and considering other options, credit reporting can in certain instances be the best way to alert consumers of their outstanding debts. Additionally, consumers could be at risk for obtaining unaffordable credit and services because lenders have an inaccurate credit report and therefore do not understand the consumer’s financial situation.”
Neeb highlighted the impact of delaying credit reporting for consumers and businesses, which is included in legislative proposals from the committee in H.R. 2547, the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives along party lines earlier this month.
“Many of the proposals found in legislation from this committee, such as the Consumer Protection for Medical Debt Collections Act, overlook the harm that arbitrarily delaying consumer reporting can have not only on the economy but on consumers themselves,” Neeb said.
During the May 26 hearing, the House Financial Services Committee will review changes to credit reporting requirements in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau oversight of credit reporting agencies, and disputing reporting information, according to a committee memorandum.
ACA will provide an update on the hearings in ACA Daily.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate could now consider the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act with extensive reforms to debt collection. ACA needs members’ help to stop the bill and educate lawmakers about how the policy proposals are harmful to businesses and consumers through a letter available to share with your member of Congress.
ACA has also created talking points for this legislation. Members can use the talking points in advocacy meetings or forward to congressional staff or other interested stakeholders in the medical or creditor community.