Elizabeth Warren

Cybersecurity and breach notification procedures have caught the most public attention following the massive hack at Equifax, but lawmakers are also interested in the accuracy of credit reports.

Congress may soon try to limit the personal identifiable information that companies and the government can collect on consumers based on their reaction to the massive data breach at Equifax.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is broadening her probe into the data breach to look at whether the company should have disclosed the breach sooner and if it plans to claw back compensation.

Democrats have strived to paint recent scandals at Wells Fargo and Equifax as prime examples of why a regulatory rule banning mandatory arbitration agreements should be upheld, but Republicans are not wavering in their campaign to overturn it.

The hearings before the Senate Banking Committee have high stakes for both companies, as lawmakers are expected to ask the CEOs whether they should be fired.

Senate Democrats' legislative bid to reform the credit reporting industry is tempered and balanced, according to analysts, which could help it gain traction in the GOP-controlled Congress.

The bill would create a federal obligation for credit reporting agencies to offer free credit freezes and prevent them from selling consumer information while a freeze is in place.

In order to compensate victims of the breach, Equifax is offering free credit monitoring services that include a mandatory arbitration clause, a measure Democrats were highlighting to lobby support for the CFPB's rule banning such clauses.

Payday lenders and arbitration supporters are claiming the CFPB has met more often with consumer groups than industry, laying the groundwork for likely lawsuits on key rules.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to 16 big banks asking them if they support a GOP effort to overturn the CFPB arbitration rule.

The House voted 231 to 190 on Tuesday to nullify the CFPB's rule banning mandatory arbitration clauses, but the outcome in Senate is unclear.

With the ink barely dry on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final arbitration rule, defenders and critics of the rule were already girding for a congressional fight over its ultimate fate.

Both parties appear interested in a deal on housing finance reform, but tough fights are ahead.

Federal regulators supported several changes the banking industry has been seeking in an appearance before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, acknowledging the need to limit the Volcker Rule and better define systemically important banks.

For Democrats, the scandal is a prominent symbol of big-bank misbehavior, while Republicans want to use it to show the shortcomings of the CFPB.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo sounded optimistic Thursday about reaching a bipartisan deal for regulatory relief, but a hearing once again emphasized the gulf between what lawmakers are likely to pass and what the industry is seeking.

Senators on both sides of the aisle paid lip service Thursday to giving relief to community banks and credit unions, but didn't appear closer to specifics of what would be in a bill.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was pressed for his views on housing finance reform, what a “modernized” version of the Glass-Steagall Act would look like and a two-tiered regulatory system.

The new Democratic strategy to block GOP Dodd-Frank rewrite is to give it more airtime.