Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, FAIR CREDIT REPORTING—Senators question credit reporting companies on student loan data errors, (Jun 18, 2026)

By Shashi Kant, B.A. LL.B., LL.M.

The senators asked Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to explain how they will prevent student loan servicing errors from damaging borrowers’ credit reports and scores.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, led six Democratic senators in pressing Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion on their procedures for preventing and correcting credit reporting errors involving federal student loan borrowers. In a letter to the chief executives of the three major credit reporting companies, the senators said they were concerned that student loan servicers may be reporting inaccurate borrower data and that credit reporting companies may lack sufficient procedures to detect those errors. Joining Warren in the letter were Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Haw.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

FCRA obligations. The senators said the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires credit reporting companies to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy. They said that obligation requires the companies to take steps to ensure that inaccurate data, including misreported defaults or delinquencies, do not appear on credit reports or affect borrowers’ credit scores. The senators cited concerns about credit reporting errors generally, stating that at least one in five credit reports contain errors. They also said incorrectly low credit scores may cause borrowers to be denied mortgages, rental housing, credit cards, auto loans, or employment opportunities.

Student loan servicing concerns. The senators tied their request to changes in the federal student loan repayment system. They said the return to repayment in October 2023, after the pandemic-era payment pause, and the resumption of student loan delinquency reporting in January 2025 reopened the possibility of damaging errors in processing and reporting student loan information. According to the letter, each student loan can require a servicer to report more than 20 types of data to credit reporting companies. The senators said one incorrect data point, if not identified and corrected, could adversely affect a borrower’s credit score. The senators also said federal student loan servicers have previously reported inaccurate data to credit reporting companies. They pointed to a 2024 congressional investigation that, according to the letter, found credit reporting companies generated incorrect credit scores for hundreds of thousands of borrowers after processing inaccurate data from servicers that double-reported certain loans. They also cited 2020 reporting errors involving incorrect repayment statuses for tens of thousands of borrowers.

Oversight and complaint resolution. The senators said they were concerned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of Department of Education oversight could increase the risk of inaccurate reporting by student loan servicers. They also said the administration’s sidelining of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversees credit reporting companies, made it harder for borrowers to resolve credit reporting errors. The senators said two of the three major credit reporting companies have resolved fewer complaints about errors than in prior years. The press release said Experian resolved less than 1 percent of complaints in consumers’ favor in 2025, compared with about 20 percent in 2024. The senators also raised concerns that some student loan delinquencies may reflect servicer mistakes rather than borrowers’ creditworthiness. They said servicers have a history of payment-processing problems, inaccurate billing statements, and other errors that may cause borrowers to miss payments even when they are trying to repay their loans.

Requested safeguards. The senators urged the companies to institute safeguards against credit reporting errors, including monitoring, oversight, and auditing of student loan servicers. They said that if a servicer repeatedly reports inaccurate delinquency data, the credit reporting companies should not report that servicer’s delinquency data until the servicer has shown that the problem has been fixed. They also said safeguards should address both inaccurate data furnished by servicers and possible errors created by the credit reporting companies’ own processing of student loan data. The senators asked Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to respond by June 30, 2026. Their questions seek information on the companies’ procedures for monitoring servicer data, auditing servicers, processing student loan account information, identifying incorrect data since January 2025, correcting errors, resolving student loan credit disputes, and removing adverse credit information older than seven years. The senators also asked whether the Department of Education is sufficiently verifying the accuracy of servicer data, what percentage of borrower disputes are corrected by the department or its servicers, and whether a borrower’s credit score is representative of creditworthiness if the borrower entered default or delinquency because of servicer error or poor communication from the Department of Education.

Companies: Equifax; Experian; TransUnion

LegislativeActivity: CFPB ConsumerCredit FairCreditReporting Loans OversightInvestigations