This story appeared in Bank Digest.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) have released the findings of a Government Accountability Office report that focuses on federal regulation of consumer credit reporting agencies and makes recommendations for actions to improve oversight and better protect consumers. They released the report in advance of a hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy to examine the GAO's recommendations, as well as efforts by the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to oversee consumer reporting agencies' handling of consumer data.
According to an Oversight and Reform Committee press release, Cummings and Warren requested the report in September 2017, shortly after credit reporting agency Equifax publicly announced that the company had allowed a massive data breach that ultimately affected more than 145 million Americans. The release said the GAO recommended that the FTC be given stronger civil penalty authority to enforce laws that protect consumer data and that the CFPB improve its oversight and supervision of CRAs.