House Will Vote on Widening Consumer Credit Protection
By MortgageDaily.com staff
7/28/2003

A new bill aimed at consumer credit protection has sailed through committee and is on its way to the House floor.

HR 2622, also known as the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, passed through the House Committee on Financial Services by a 61-3 vote, the committee said.

"This landmark legislation strikes the appropriate balance between consumers’ access to vibrant credit markets and the protections they need to fight identity theft and to ensure the accuracy of their credit reports," said Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-OH), committee chairman, in the statement.

Among other measures, the act would: require financial institutions to develop procedures to better recognize identity theft; limit medical information disclosure in the preparation and release of credit reports; and require unsolicited credit offerers to disclose risk-based pricing procedures.

The bill will also "establish new fraud identification tools and help consumers limit prescreened offers of credit and insurance," according to a statement issued by the house committee.

Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus, co-sponsor of the bill, said in the statement, "But by far the most striking result of our national credit reporting system is the dramatically increased availability of credit - the democratization of credit. Low- and middle-income families are the big winners under the Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act."

Article © MortgageDaily.com All Rights Reserved