Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, FAIR CREDIT REPORTING—Senate Democrats ask credit agencies for information on BNPL policies, (May 7, 2026)

By Nora Macaluso

The senators said they want to understand whether and how reporting agencies use data on buy now, pay later loans when compiling reports on consumers.

Four Senate Democrats sent letters to the three major credit-reporting agencies asking them to explain how they incorporate buy now, pay later (BNPL) products into consumers’ credit reports. “The current infrastructure of credit reporting in the United States is extremely opaque; the credit reporting industry has been very secretive about its scoring models, which presents major, potential consumer protection issues,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member on the chamber’s banking committee; Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.); Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.); and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) wrote to the heads of Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

“With the rise of data harvesting, credit reporting companies hold more information about consumers than ever before,” the senators wrote. “Moreover, credit reporting companies are also now performing the functions of data harvesters themselves.”

The senators’ letters to the credit agencies follow requests they sent last November to seven major companies offering BNPL loans asking for information about their practices, including whether they reported such loans to credit bureaus (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Nov. 20, 2025).

“With one notable exception, most BNPL providers do not automatically provide data to credit reporting agencies,” the senators said.

“Companies’ concerns included that credit reporting agencies may: interpret BNPL loans in a manner that is harmful to their customers, including adding ‘unnecessary’ tradelines to a consumers’ credit report; be unable to handle complexities when consumers make returns; lower their customer’s credit scores based on their interpretation of the BNPL data; and broader concerns about the manner and types of data that are used to determine a credit score.”

“However, despite the concerns of BNPL lenders, all three credit reporting companies have indicated that they have the capabilities to receive BNPL data and are in various phases of incorporating that data into consumers’ credit reports,” and all three “currently receive BNPL data from at least one lender, with more likely as BNPL continues to expand,” they continued.

The senators asked the companies to respond to a set of questions about whether and how they include BNPL data in credit reports and in scoring credit, how they classify the loans, and whether they have conducted studies about the impact of including BNPL loans on consumers’ credit scores.

“Given the exceptional growth in the BNPL industry in recent years, BNPL loans are becoming a larger part of consumer’s credit pictures at the same time that Americans are under historic financial pressures,” the senators said.

They requested answers to their questions by May 18.

Companies: Equifax; Experian; TransUnion

LegislativeActivity: ConsumerCredit FairCreditReporting Loans OversightInvestigations