As Chairwoman of the powerful Financial Services Committee, she calls for the a moratorium on Equifax for wrongfully reporting consumer credit
We all know that African Americans have the largest increase in unemployment before — and even more after the beginning of — the pandemic. African American-owned businesses have had the greatest financial losses amidst COVID-19. The more unemployment in Black America, the more Equifax’s Work Number data is purchased by a wide range of financial status verifiers. But who is monitoring or challenging the accuracy of the Equifax Work Number data especially when it is about African Americans?
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On June 22, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the outcome of a settlement with Equifax, one of the three major credit monitoring firms in the United States.
It has been nearly two years since Equifax announced that a historically massive data breach left the personal information over 147 million people (almost half of all Americans) vulnerable to theft. The consumer credit reporting giant agreed last month to a $700 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 states and territories, $425 million of which has been set aside to compensate victims of the breach.
The website is the only one authorized by federal law to provide this information, and Feuer also warned consumers to be cautious of other websites that claim to offer free credit reports.
Congresswoman Waters prefers a legislative approach – one that will ensure this type of financial disaster from happening again.