Equifax says consumer credit scores changed in computer error

Equifax said some consumer credit scores were changed because of a computer error that has since been rectified.

A server “coding issue” led to the inaccurate scores, the consumer credit reporting firm said Tuesday in a statement posted on the web. The Atlanta-based firm didn’t say how many consumers were affected.

Smith Collection/Gado/Photographer: Smith Collection/G

“There was no shift in the vast majority of scores during the three-week time frame of the issue,” the company said. “For those consumers that did experience a score shift, initial analysis indicates that only a small number of them may have received a different credit decision.”

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Equifax provided inaccurate credit scores on millions of U.S. consumers looking for loans, citing bank executives and people familiar with the matter it didn’t identify.

Erroneous scores were sent from mid-March through early April, and disclosures of the errors began in May, the newspaper reported. The scores covered consumers applying for auto loans, mortgages and credit cards to banks and nonbank lenders including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial, according to the report.

Shares of the company fell 2.1% to $206.31 in regular New York trading.

The issue follows a cyberattack at Equifax, which maintains credit reports on U.S. consumers and sells them to lenders, that it disclosed in September 2017.

Hackers accessed data including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and addresses, it said at the time.