Senator Brown says one-in-five Americans have errors like zombie debts on their credit reports. First, he’s asking federal financial regulatory agencies to do a better job of screening credit reports for such inaccuracies and immediately correct them.

“We need to ensure that consumers are getting credit scores based on accurate information on their credit reports, and that errors and old debts aren’t compounding the problem. It’s hard enough after foreclosure, after bankruptcy, hard enough after a credit problem, when you’ve fixed it as the consumer and your credit report doesn’t show you’ve fixed it.” 

Brown has also introduced legislation that would require banks to automatically notify credit reporting agencies when a consumer’s debt has been removed through bankruptcy. He says in Ohio last year there were more than 40,000 personal bankruptcies, many resulting from the home loan crisis.