[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5963-S5964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Mr. Hagerty):
  S. 3502. A bill to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prevent 
consumer reporting agencies from furnishing consumer reports under 
certain circumstances, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Madam President, I am pleased to introduce the homebuyers 
Privacy Protection Act with the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Hagerty. 
This bipartisan legislation restricts the use of so-called mortgage 
``trigger leads'' and gives prospective home buyers control over their 
personal credit information.
  Trigger leads are essentially tips based on information the major 
credit reporting bureaus sell to mortgage brokers and lenders when the 
bureaus learn that a consumer has applied for a mortgage with another 
lender. Each trigger lead they sell can generate dozens of calls and 
solicitations to the consumer from lenders, ostensibly to provide the 
consumer with better offers. In fact, one home buyer reported to the 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that they received over 100 calls 
from other lenders within 2 days of applying for a mortgage. 
Prospective home buyers who are bombarded by these kind of 
solicitations typically have no idea their information was sold without 
their affirmative consent.
  Buying a home is often the most consequential financial decision a 
family will make. Getting ``spammed'' with additional offers, after a 
family has already shopped for a mortgage and chosen a lender, makes 
this already stressful process even more stressful. It can be very 
difficult, if not impossible, for a family to sift through dozens of 
offers over a few days and actually receive better credit. Consumers 
who are subjected to a deluge of solicitations as the result of a 
trigger lead are justified in feeling that their privacy has been 
invaded.
  Many reputable mortgage companies see it the same way. They support 
curtailing trigger leads since prospective home buyers often blame 
their lender for selling off their personal information even though it 
is the credit bureaus that are providing this information.
  Unrelenting, aggressive solicitations are more than just a nuisance. 
Indeed, some companies that buy trigger leads may not use them 
responsibly and may have poor track records of compliance. In 2018, the 
Washington Post reported that some mortgage lenders had used trigger 
leads to misrepresent themselves in calls by suggesting that they are 
underwriters for the consumer's current lender or by implying that they 
are calling from a government agency. According to reporting in the 
Chicago Tribune, unsuspecting home buyers are at risk of inadvertently 
handing over sensitive personal information, exposing themselves to 
identity theft.
  The current system leaves consumers without control of their personal 
information when they apply for a mortgage. Our bill will fix the 
current system by significantly restricting the circumstances in which 
the credit bureaus can sell home buyers' personal information to 
generate trigger leads. The credit bureaus would be permitted to sell 
this information only in the limited circumstances when the consumer 
already has a significant financial relationship with the lending 
institution seeking the information or when the prospective home buyer 
has provided affirmative consent to share this information broadly with 
other lenders.
  The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act will go a long way towards 
securing consumers' personal information and will provide much needed 
relief from the seemingly never-ending solicitations prospective home 
buyers receive during an already stressful time.
  I thank the broad coalition of consumer advocacy groups and trade 
associations for their support, including the Mortgage Bankers 
Association, the National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-
income clients, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the 
Community Home Lenders of

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America, U.S. PIRG, the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts, 
the Broker Action Coalition, the American Bankers Association, and the 
Independent Community Bankers of America.
  I urge my colleagues to join Senator Hagerty and me in supporting 
this commonsense, bipartisan bill.

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