US credit agency Equifax says errant computer code led the company to provide inaccurate credit information about US folks to financial institutions for a period of about three weeks earlier this year.
"Equifax identified a coding issue within a legacy, on-premise server environment in the US slated to be migrated to the new Equifax Cloud infrastructure," the biz said on Tuesday in a statement.
The company said the glitch occurred between March 17 and April 6, 2022, when the issue was fixed, and "resulted in the potential miscalculation of certain attributes used in model calculations."
Equifax said, "Credit reports were not changed as a result of this issue," though the Wall Street Journal reports that the credit scores provided to financial firms in conjunction with consumer applications for auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards were off by 20 points or more, enough to alter lender credit decisions.
In its statement, Equifax said its analysis of the consequences of the coding issue indicates "the vast majority" of credit scores were unaffected. For those who were affected, the company said, "initial analysis indicates that only a small number of them may have received a different credit decision."
According to the corporation, fewer than 300,000 consumers saw a credit score shift of 25 points or more. The Wall Street Journal says lenders have asked Equifax for more details and may consider repricing loans or giving denied loan applicants the opportunity to reapply.
The Register asked Equifax whether it would be more specific about the nature of the "code issue" that altered people's credit scores. We've not heard ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
