CFPB report on natural disasters and credit reporting

The Bureau has announced it has issued its Quarterly Consumer Credit Trends report. The current report focuses on natural disasters and credit reporting. The current report, based on a nationally representative sample of approximately five million de-identified credit records at one of the three nationwide credit reporting agencies, explores the reporting of natural disasters in consumer credit records, and summarizes trends in natural disaster reporting for consumers in the Greater Houston area affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Key findings include:

• About 8 percent of tradelines contained a special comment code indicating being affected by a natural disaster in 2017. The natural disaster comment code was on a tradeline for an average of two months.
• Nearly 40 percent of consumers with a credit report in the Greater Houston area received the natural disaster comment code on at least one of their credit tradelines after Hurricane Harvey.
• Mortgage accounts were the most common type of tradeline to receive the natural disaster comment code.
• Accounts that received the natural disaster comment code are associated with higher median balances and higher rates of delinquency prior to the hurricane.