A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) report revealed removing civil public records from consumer credit reports had minimal impact on credit scores.
Officials said the three nationwide credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, entered into National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP)
settlement with over 30 state attorneys general, requiring the companies to increase the accuracy of credit reports and to make it easier for consumers to correct errors on their reports.
Part of the settlement, officials said, required the credit reporting companies to create minimum standards for personally identifiable information and reporting frequency for civil public records, including bankruptcies, civil judgments and tax liens.
The report determined after the settlement agreement, about 4 percent of consumers with civil judgments or tax liens on their credit record in June experienced a large enough increase in their credit score as the result of the NCAP to move into a higher credit score band, meaning their credit score moved from being subprime to near prime or from near prime to prime.
CFPB officials said data used in the report are from the Bureau’s Consumer Credit Panel, a longitudinal, nationally-representative sample of approximately 5 million de-identified credit records maintained by one of the three nationwide credit reporting companies.