The left-leaning think tank Demos recently offered a bold, but seemingly obvious, proposition: Just scrap the private credit scoring system, and replace it with a government agency, accountable to the public.
All the decisions of this public credit agency would ultimately be answerable to Congressional oversight, and to the policymakers everyday Americans elect to represent us. "A public credit registry would put consumers at the center," Traub concluded. "The goal would not be, let's monetize this data as much as possible. The goal would be, how do we enable consumers to build credit that's appropriate for them, so lenders can use this information to make rational decisions about who to lend to and how much?"
Lastly, Demos' proposal also includes wrap-around reforms to help out everyday Americans with their credit in other ways: ban predatory lending with interest rate caps, reform debt collection practices, reform bankruptcy law, prohibit forced arbitration, defend the CFPB, improve public services and jobs, and more.