Highlights of panel discussions and key themes arising during a day-long symposium held last September on how to help “credit-invisible” consumers gain access to credit was published Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Kraninger, in a brief message for the report, said the bureau under her leadership “remains committed to expanding access to credit for creditworthy borrowers and knocking down the barriers that too often stand between consumers and financial opportunity.” Patrice Alexander Ficklin, the bureau’s fair lending director, wrote that CFPB research has found that 1 in 10 adults in the U.S., or 26 million people, are “credit invisible,” and that another 19 million adults in the U.S. have “unscorable” credit records – together accounting for almost 20% of the entire U.S. adult population.
The symposium was held before Kathleen (“Kathy”) Kraninger was confirmed as bureau director but while John (“Mick”) Mulvaney was serving as acting director. The day of the symposium, the bureau also released a Data Point report, “The Geography of Credit Invisibility,” which examined geographic patterns in the incidence of credit invisibility, briefly, to see whether where one lives is related to one’s ability to access credit. The Data Point is included as an appendix to Friday’s symposium write-up.
“Building a Bridge to Credit Visibility,” a report on the CFPB’s symposium held Sept. 17, 2018, in Washington
RR: Rural, ‘micro’ areas hold highest incidence of ‘credit invisibles,’ bureau study finds (Sept. 18, 2018)