Credit unions should not be required to provide members with free credit scores, CUNA and NAFCU told the CFPB in separate letters.

“Many companies and financial institutions—including some credit unions—choose to voluntarily provide free credit scores to their consumers and members,” Luke Martone, CUNA’s senior director of advocacy and counsel, said in a letter to the agency. “We applaud their choice to do so, but stress to the CFPB that it may not be feasible for others to offer such a consumer perk.”

In November, when Richard Cordray was still director of the agency, the CFPB solicited comments from consumers and financial institutions about their experience with free credit scores. That comment period ended Monday.

In his letter, Martone said that credit unions’ “non-profit, member-owned, cooperative structure puts them on the front lines of financial empowerment at all stages of life.”

He urged the CFPB and other agencies to provide financial institutions with guidance concerning easy access to credit scores but added that the guidance should not “go so far as to prescribe unnecessary requirements.”

NAFCU agreed, saying that credit unions emphasize the financial health of their members.

“NAFCU believes that credit unions must be free to choose what services they offer their members based on their understanding of what constitutes effective financial literacy, Andrew Morris, NAFCU’s regulatory affairs counsel said in a letter to the CFPB. “Accordingly, the CFPB should not create any new requirement that would compel credit unions to offer free credit scores, as this may prove unreasonably costly or draw resources away from more essential products or services.”

Instant Insights /

Don&rsquo;t Require CUs to Give Free Credit Scores, Trades Tell CFPB

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Don’t Require CUs to Give Free Credit Scores, Trades Tell CFPB