Credit Scores Relaxed Under Obama Pressure

Bullied by President Obama's new consumer watchdog, the Big Three consumer credit bureaus have curved credit scores for deadbeats. The capitulation is a bad omen for the economy.

The campaign began in 2011 when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigated scoring models used by the consumer credit-reporting agencies. They include the VantageScore owned by the three biggest credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — which provide scores and reports to underwriters.

Then last summer, the administration fed a front-page story to the Washington Post lamenting how "credit scores of black Americans have been systematically damaged" by subprime foreclosures, "haunting their financial futures." A week later, CFPB announced in Detroit that it would start policing Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

"These companies have never before been subject to any federal supervision program," CFPB chief Richard Cordray said in July. "Now, they will be monitored just as big banks are monitored."

By that, he meant his diversity cops will subject them, as well, to "disparate impact" investigations. Under that dubious doctrine, policies found to have an adverse impact on minorities are deemed racist, even if they're racially neutral and applied evenly.