[flatline]

Except that it can take months or years for the affected individual to clear up their credit record. And they may still end up on the hook for some of that debt. There is a direct and immediate impact on the individual in terms of debt against them and whatever credit reporting occurs on that debt. There is more distant impact on the lenders to eventually eat the losses - which in aggregate are in fact quite large - but no real impact to the lender’s reputation.

[cheriot]

It's worth distinguishing between the lenders and the credit bureaus. The latter cause much of the pain around identity theft afaik.

[ryanlol]

>Except that it can take months or years for the affected individual to clear up their credit record

In what scenario could this take years? Honestly anything beyond a month sounds pretty unlikely unless your identity was abused for an extended period (as in by a family member or such), and even then I don't see how.

As far as I understand the process for getting fraudulent accounts removed from credit reports typically takes less than a week.