Diverse Coalition Sends Letter Urging Action on Trigger Leads Bill

A diverse coalition of organizations, led by the Mortgage Bankers Association, sent a letter to leadership of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee urging movement on the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act of 2024.

Introduced as S. 3502 by Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in the Senate and H.R. 7297 by Reps. John Rose (R-Tenn.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) in the House, if enacted, it would curb the abusive use of mortgage credit “trigger leads” in all but a limited set of circumstances.

Trigger leads occur when a consumer applies for a mortgage, and the requisite inquiry to a credit reporting agency by a lender notifies that agency the consumer is interested in home financing. That data is then sold and consumers are contacted via various means from the buyers of the data.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that is permissible as long as the prospective creditor is prepared to make the consumer a ‘firm offer of credit.’ ” The current burden is on the consumer to opt out of the sale of their data by a credit reporting agency.

S. 3502 and H.R. 7297 would allow for trigger leads to be permissible under FCRA only in limited circumstances during a real estate transaction.  

“In short, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act would stop the abusive use of trigger leads-while narrowly preserving them for legitimate uses such as existing customer relationships,” the letter said. “We urge you to support this bipartisan solution for consumers and promptly consider it for markup within your respective committees.”

To see the full letter and list of groups that signed on, click here.