Credit Reporting in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We at FICO recognize the significant challenges faced by lenders in these extraordinary times, and we want to offer our assistance. As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacts borrowers and lenders across Canada, we are providing information to data furnishers to clearly communicate how various credit reporting actions they take during the COVID-19 pandemic will impact Canadian consumers’ FICO^® Scores.

COVID-19 DEFERRED ACCOUNT REPORTING

Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada have recently issued reporting guidelines for data furnishers who offer credit relief or payment deferral programs to consumers impacted by COVID-19. The guidelines state that accounts impacted by a natural or declared disaster should be reported as in deferment, along with a “current” account status and no amounts past due. This reporting approach should permanently ensure that a borrower’s FICO^® Score will not be impacted by late payments related to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The guidelines also speak to reporting special comment code AW (“affected by natural or declared disaster”) on impacted accounts. It is important to note that the reporting of special comment code AW alone will not affect the FICO^® Score calculation and should not be viewed as a way of providing consumers relief with respect to the FICO^® Score. As reported and reflected in the credit file, fields such as account status and amount past due will continue to be important and considered in the calculation of the FICO^® Score.

We will continue to post updates to this web page to provide data furnishers with up to date information on this topic.

Again, we recognize that we are operating in extraordinary times, and we want to offer our assistance to organizations we serve. Should you have further questions please contact us at: ScoreSupport@fico.com