Occupy arm makes demands

Occupy Wall Street's Alternative Banking Group recently sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) urging stricter oversight of consumer credit bureaus, The Washington Post reports. The suggestion comes on the heels of the CFPB's increased power under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The recommendation that the CFPB should centrally manage credit scoring systems instead of private credit bureaus would, as the media outlet states, "raise the hackles of more libertarian-minded privacy advocates." Other demands were responded to by Tom Quinn, credit reporting and scoring expert for Credit.com, via Business Insider. For instance, the movement wants the CFPB to expose the algorithms it uses to calculate credit scores. However, Quinn says that disclosing this information might deter lenders from using them, and it's more feasible to simply help consumers understand the scoring process rather than the formula. Furthermore, the movement wants reports to limit outdated data from affecting a score after a certain period. Quinn notes that delinquent payments are wiped from records after seven years, while outdated data - such as credit card information from 20 years ago - can actually show how well a person managed their finances, thus benefiting them.