Credit scores

Equifax Inc. will debut a new service that will permanently give consumers the ability to lock and unlock their credit for free.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., plans to reintroduce legislation requiring the IRS to fast-track income verification, which proponents say could reduce the financial industry's dependence on credit bureaus.

It’s not just consumers who are worried about identity theft. For the millions of business owners who rely on their personal credit to finance operations, damage to credit scores could have dire consequences.

As Equifax sheds its top execs, more experts are casting attention on the business practice of charging consumers for monitoring their personal data at bureaus that otherwise give them little control over their financial identities.

Inevitably, Equifax’s CEO Richard Smith has left his post. For the credit bureau's sake, let's hope it has a long-term plan that's better than promoting from within.

The hearings before the Senate Banking Committee have high stakes for both companies, as lawmakers are expected to ask the CEOs whether they should be fired.

LendingPoint, which caters to borrowers with damaged credit records, believes that traditional credit scores are overly pessimistic about the likelihood that certain borrowers will repay.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called for bipartisan action against Equifax during a Senate floor speech on Tuesday, criticizing the credit bureau for waiting several weeks after a massive data breach to reveal it to the public.

Normally tight-lipped about security moves, bankers tell how they are re-examining their systems for Equifax-like flaws and providing new cards, fresh accounts and reassuring advice for anxious customers.

Efforts to persuade regulators to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to use alternative credit scores would stifle competition between the credit bureaus and FICO and do little to expand access to credit, according to industry analyst Chris Whalen.

Senate Democrats' legislative bid to reform the credit reporting industry is tempered and balanced, according to analysts, which could help it gain traction in the GOP-controlled Congress.

The Alabama bank will add the nonprofit's financial-advice centers for underbanked consumers to 88 branches over the next four years, in addition to the 12 it already housed.

The bill would create a federal obligation for credit reporting agencies to offer free credit freezes and prevent them from selling consumer information while a freeze is in place.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., sent a letter to the top executives at TransUnion and Experian on Wednesday asking them what steps they are taking to safeguard consumer data in light of the Equifax breach.

The reaction to major data breaches has always been to protect card data. But the non-card data that Equifax handled deserved just as much attention, if not more.

Senate Finance Committee leaders sent a letter to Equifax CEO Richard Smith scrutinizing the scope of the company's data breach and its response.

Lawmakers signaled Monday that Congress will likely have a swift and powerful response to revelations that the credit reporting company Equifax was hacked, exposing 143 million people to identity theft.

An artificial intelligence model predicted creditworthiness more accurately than traditional models in an experiment conducted by the auto lender. The technology someday could be used to find hidden gems among loan applicants — emphasis on the someday.

A credit service provider agreed to exit the industry on Wednesday after a yearlong lawsuit with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

FHFA Director Mel Watt said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot use alternative credit models until other issues are resolved first.