Fifth Third Mistakenly Reports Customers as Bankrupt

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) in Cincinnati mistakenly informed credit bureaus that a number of customers had filed for bankruptcy.

The error occurred late last fall as Fifth Third changed its technological systems, according to company spokeswoman Stephanie Honan. The $128 billion-asset lender fixed the problem in December and has since updated its reports to credit bureaus with corrected information.

But customers whose credit records were inadvertently smeared are only now discovering Fifth Third's error.

"We notified our customers about the error starting late last week, and we've taken actions to ensure that this will not occur again," Honan said. "The accuracy of our customers' credit history is important to us."

Honan declined to say how many Fifth Third customers were affected.

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