In certain cases, the errors were large enough — the difference was at least 25 points for about 300,000 consumers — that some potential borrowers were wrongly denied credit, the company said in a statement.
The issue, the company said, arose because of a “coding issue” when making a change to one of Equifax’s servers, which said the issue “existed over a period of a few weeks.” [and] resulted in the possible miscalculation” of credit scores.
While Equifax didn’t specify dates or numbers, a June 1 warning from housing agency Freddie Mac said to its clients that Equifax told the agency that about 12% of all credit scores released from March 17 to April 6 may have been incorrect.
Equifax wrote that “there was no shift in the vast majority of scores” and that “credit reports were not affected”. But the company declined to comment to CNN Business about how people can know if they were among those whose credit scores were reported incorrectly — and what story they might have if they got loans at a higher rate or refused a loan outright because of the snafu .
Tuesday’s revelation about the scoring errors comes just after Equifax said the board voted to give CEO Mark Begor a $25 million retention bonus package.
Last Friday’s regulatory filing announcing the bonus said the board believes Boger is “uniquely qualified to continue leading the company through the final stages of our $1.5 billion technology transformation.”
Equifax tracks the credit histories of millions of borrowers — nearly all Americans — and sells that information to banks and other lenders. As one of only three major credit reporting companies, Equifax plays an outrageous role in the credit scoring business, helping lenders determine interest rates for borrowers or denying borrowers seeking mortgages, auto loans, or credit cards.