DATE: October 23,
2007
Contact: Financial Service Centers of America
Stephen Altobelli
201.964.2369
saltobelli@mww.com
or
PRBC
Michael Nathans
443.569.8042
mgnathans@prbc.com
FiSCA and PRBC Launch Partnership to Help Low and Moderate Income
Consumers Build Credit
Hackensack, NJ -- The Financial
Service Centers of America (FiSCA) and PRBC (Payment Reporting Builds
Credit) today announced a groundbreaking partnership through which FiSCA
members can offer the Payment Reporting Builds Creditâ service to
their customers. PRBC is a consumer reporting agency and repository that
enables consumers and small businesses to build a credit file and score,
based on their history of making rent, utility, phone, and other
recurring bill payments that can be used to demonstrate
creditworthiness. Through the “FiSCA/PRBC Credit File Building
Program,” FiSCA’s members can enable their customers to
build their credit history by voluntarily reporting the financial
transactions they’ve been making on a regular basis. This will
enable users of credit reports and scores to have a more complete
picture of an applicant’s creditworthiness. FiSCA members operate
more than 6,500 stores nationwide offering check cashing, money orders,
money transfer, bill payment, and other services. The partnership with
PRBC means that millions of Americans who pay their monthly utility and
phone bills at these locations will soon have access to this credit
building opportunity.
Currently, there are more than 50 million Americans
who either do not have credit files at Equifax, Experian, or
TransUnion—the three major credit bureaus—or whose files
contain insufficient credit history to generate a credit score. Lenders
tend to treat these “thin-file” or “unscorable”
individuals similarly to those who have had past credit problems or
delinquencies and hence, low credit scores.
The three major credit bureaus do not track most
payments of commonly recurring bills such as rent, private mortgages,
utilities, telephone, cable TV, or child care. As a result, many
fiscally-responsible consumers without established traditional credit
histories are effectively precluded from obtaining affordable home
loans, auto loans and insurance. This situation can also make obtaining
an apartment, employment, utility hook-ups, and telephone service
difficult and costly. FiSCA and PRBC came together to enable financial
service center customers to use their bill payment histories to gain
access to more traditional financial services and asset-building
opportunities.
“FiSCA members who offer the PRBC service help
their customers demonstrate their ability and willingness to meet their
financial obligations, and they enable lenders and other service
providers to more accurately and fairly assess these consumers’
creditworthiness,” said Corey Stone, PRBC’s CEO. “We
are pleased that FiSCA members want to help their customers demonstrate
their creditworthiness when they apply for housing, credit, insurance,
and employment.”
FiSCA, whose members represent the country’s
leading multi-line financial service center companies with more than
6,500 storefront locations, views the PRBC partnership as yet another
step in its ongoing efforts to offer a complete line of basic financial
services to the millions of low to moderate income Americans who do not
use traditional financial institutions.
“Multi-line financial service centers have long
served as a convenient resource for those meeting their monthly
financial obligations outside of a banking relationship,” said
Hank Shyne, Executive Director of FiSCA. “Through the PRBC
partnership, we can now offer our customers a valuable opportunity to
establish and build, or to supplement their existing credit file when
they are conducting their regular transactions with us. This, in turn,
will make it easier for them to obtain more, and lower cost,
credit.”
Participation in the PRBC service, in which
consumers’ monthly bill payments are tracked and documented in a
personal credit file, is voluntary. PRBC produces a PRBC Reportsm
and a Bill Payment Scoresm (BPSâ) which can be used in the absence
of a traditional credit report and score, or to gain a more complete
risk assessment of an applicant who has a traditional credit file. PRBC
does not charge consumers a fee to enroll in the PRBC service or to view
their own credit file in PRBC’s database. More information
about FiSCA and PRBC can be found online at www.fisca.org and www.prbc.com.
About FiSCA
FiSCA, founded in 1987, is the national trade
association for more than 6,500 individual financial service centers
across the United States. FiSCA members provide a wide variety of
financial services and products to their communities, including check
cashing, money orders, money transfers, and electronic bill payment
services, automatic teller machine access, government benefit and
payroll payments, small dollar short-term loans, electronic tax
preparation, prepaid debit cards, deposit acceptance services, public
transportation fare and token sales, motor vehicle license plate and
title distribution, postage stamp sales and numerous other services. For
more information, please visit www.fisca.org.
About PRBC
PRBC collects, stores, scores, and reports bill
payment data such as rent, utilities, phone, insurance and other
recurring payments, as a consumer reporting agency as defined under the
Fair Credit Reporting Act. PRBC enables consumers to demonstrate
their ability and willingness to pay all of their bills on time,
providing an indicator of creditworthiness even if the consumer has not
used “traditional” debt. A PRBC Report may be used as
a "non-traditional mortgage credit report" (NTMCR) that meets Fannie
Mae's, Freddie Mac's, and the FHA's standards for documenting
creditworthiness in the absence of a traditional credit history.
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