Banking

Bank lending activity grew at a strong clip in the second quarter and continues to expand. Yet rising interest rates and recession concerns could hamper future growth.

The announcement comes as interest in Federal Home Loan bank funding has experienced a resurgence, with advances up 48% in the first six months this year.

The $369 billion directed toward climate preparedness in the Inflation Reduction Act is expected to reverberate through the economy for years to come and could supercharge private investment in the nation's clean energy sector. 

Advances by Federal Home Loan banks hit a 15-year low last year, but commercial banks and other financial institutions are clamoring for more as loan demand has increased and deposits have ebbed. How long will the trend continue?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent offensive against redlining by nonbank mortgage originators is increasingly relying on internal communications to make charges stick.

Farmers Bank plans to develop new revenue from home loans, despite seeing many bigger lenders flee the same market.

A new bipartisan senate caucus organized around community development financial institutions is just the latest sign that the sector's political influence is reaching new heights. 

Recent reports highlight the question of how much wage growth can do to sustain loan performance as pandemic relief gets rolled back, consumer costs rise and the housing market cools.

The rating agency has revised the long-term issuer default rating for PacWest Bancorp and its banking subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank, from "BBB" to "BBB-" and says it doesn't expect the bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio to bounce back anytime soon.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said a company doesn't need to experience a data breach for the agency to consider taking action.

The pandemic-era freeze on student debt payments has "dramatically" improved credit scores for Americans who borrowed money to pay for college, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.

Late-payment rates are rising at nonbanks that lend to people with lower credit scores. "We're probably entering a stretch where you're going to see a separation between those that are relatively good underwriters and those that are not," one analyst said.

The agency acknowledged that loan performance in the sector has been strong, but cited several reasons to think that might change, including rising interest rates, the effects of inflation and uncertainty about the future of work and commerce.

Equifax, the second-biggest global credit bureau, was hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit after a report that it provided inaccurate credit scores on millions of U.S. consumers looking for loans.

The founder of the New York City bank and CDFI focused on lending to underserved communities and augmenting digital capabilities.

Equifax said some consumer credit scores were changed because of a computer error that has since been rectified.

Equifax provided inaccurate credit scores on millions of U.S. consumers looking for loans, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing bank executives and people familiar with the matter it didn't identify. 

Even though delinquency rates were previously at extremely low levels, the recent uptick among poorer consumers is worth monitoring, New York Fed researchers said.

The company says it’s making progress on other parts of its business-model revamp — including a shift to lower-cost deposit sources — while regulators weigh its application to buy Flagstar Bancorp in Troy, Michigan.

Silvio Tavares, the credit score company’s relatively new leader, is honing its models to be more inclusive, for instance by taking into account rent payment data and bank account data.