Occupy the consumer credit bureaus!

The wonks of Occupy Wall Street are diving into the weeds again, this time agitating for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt stricter oversight and regulations for consumer credit bureaus. Under Dodd-Frank, the CFPB has taken over the rule-making under the Fair Credit Reporting Act from a handful of existing federal agencies. Right now, the CFPB is finalizing this changing of the guard, but Occupy Wall Street’s Alternative Banking Group — an offshoot of the movement in New York — believes that CFPB could be missing a chance to institute broader reforms.
(AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

In its comment letter to the CFPB, the Alternative Banking Group begins by making a fairly radical proposal, suggesting that “the CFPB should centrally manage the credit scoring system, instead of simply allowing private credit bureaus to control vital financial data.” Such a reform would raise the hackles of more libertarian-minded privacy advocates. But the Occupy group goes on to make other suggestions that could have broader appeal. Among the ideas:

— Credit scores should be calculated using a model that is public and freely available.
— Credit reports sent to consumers, including those sent pursuant to the free annual credit report available to consumers under current law, should always contain the consumers’ numeric credit score.
— There should be a way for an individual to forecast how his or her credit score would change under various circumstances — e.g., if he/she paid their electric bill late, had a different credit card balance, etc.
— There should be due process for disputes over negative credit information
— Credit reports should limit the ability of outdated data from before a certain period to affect a consumer’s score.

Such suggestions mostly seem like common sense ideas, but they’re the latest sign that a small but visible faction of the Occupy movement is not only working within the system, but also delving into the bureaucratic back channels of the regulatory process to make itself heard.