A group of Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal pressed Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion about how the credit bureaus are incorporating data from buy now, pay later loans into consumer credit reports. The senators asked the agencies to provide details about how they treat BNPL loans versus longer-term installment products, how they handle purchases involving returns, and their standards for reporting multiple loans with the same lender. Most buy now, pay later companies have resisted robust reporting of consumer loans to the bureaus, saying the information would be harmful to credit scores, though a recent study by FICO of loans issued by Affirm showed that was largely not the case. The senators wrote in their letter that “the credit reporting industry has been very secretive about its scoring models, which presents major, potential consumer protection issues,” with the inquiry coming as the Trump administration scales back the scope of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
