An issue where bankers, lenders, and consumer advocates all find themselves on the same side? How rare is that? About two dozen companies and trade associations have sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees, asking them to move forward with a bill that has been introduced in both the House and Senate to ban the sale of trigger leads for mortgages.
The Background: The bills, H.R. 7297 and S. 3502, were introduced last month under the name of the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act of 2024 and both have bipartisan support. If enacted, the bill would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit credit reporting agencies from furnishing information about a consumer’s mortgage application to another person unless the other person has the authorization or permission of the consumer applying for the loan, was the loan’s originator or servicer, or is an insured depository institution or credit union that holds an account owned by the consumer to whom the credit report relates.
- In many cases, when a borrower applies for a mortgage, other companies have set up what are known as triggers with the credit reporting agencies to be notified of that application. Consumers are often bombarded with calls and inquiries from companies seeking to do business with them because they are now looking to buy a house.
- Consumers often blame the mortgage company they applied with, thinking that company sold their information, not realizing it was the credit bureaus that did it.
The Coalition: Endorsing their support for the bills were groups like the American Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association, companies like Rocket Mortgage and Freedom Mortgage, and advocacy groups like the Consumer Federation of America and the National Consumer Law Center.
What They Want: They want the bill to become law. Calling trigger leads, “abusive,” the groups are asking for the respective committees to mark up the bill and move them to the full House of Representatives and Senate for their consideration.