HMS creates new way to monitor credit reporting

Imagine as part of your business you collect credit information to help make decisions regarding services, a landlord for example.

Now imagine one of your employees seeing that confidential information and confronting the person who submitted it in an inappropriate setting, say a bar.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act strictly spells out how credit information can be used. Your employee has just broken the law and you could be in big trouble, facing fines and perhaps a lawsuit.

HMS Credit has created a service to help businesses avoid that nightmare.

By taking credit information and using an algorithm that the company developed, HMS Credit can provide information that can be shared as a score in a way that does not reveal confidential information and does not break the law. This makes HMS a reseller of consumer information. Companies subscribe to the service and certain employees can access the score without ever seeing confidential credit information.

“This will help them stay out of the witch hunt,” says Michael Fleckenstein, CEO of HMS.

The service is available to companies that have a permissible purpose for having such information — employers, insurance companies, landlords and others specified under law.

HMS Credit is one of the most recent additions to the company that has managed rental properties for 25 years in Kalamazoo. Fleckenstein anticipates the business could have national applications and it’s a part  of the business for which he has high expectations.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Michael Fleckenstein, HMS