In response to questions regarding the June 2012 release of the report, “A New Pathway to Financial Inclusion,” the Policy and Economic Research Council (PERC) released a follow-up report focusing on the impacts of reporting moderately late payments to (CRAs), also known as credit bureaus.
“The Credit Impacts on Low-Income Americans from Reporting Moderately Late Utility Payments,” addresses the accusation that the inclusion of such data in credit reports will disproportionately harm lower income Americans.
“We have studied this issue to death, and always the results are the same,” said PERC President Dr. Michael Turner. “Fully reporting utility payment data helps many millions of Americans build a good credit history or repair a damaging one. It is by far the fairest, most effective means available to end credit invisibility.”
An estimated 35 to 54 million Americans lack access to affordable mainstream credit because they have no credit report or they do not have enough information in their credit report. The inclusion of additional data will provide lenders with a more comprehensive picture of a borrower’s payment history including those with little or no information in their existing credit file.
Download the entire report here
