As the holiday shopping season approaches, late payments on credit cards have surpassed their pre-pandemic levels, according to a new VantageScore report. The consumers showing signs of deterioration include not only subprime borrowers, but also those with prime credit scores.

Adjusted for inflation, consumer spending has largely stalled after surging at the start of the year. Delinquency rates, meanwhile, are ticking up. 

Rising interest rates on loans, greater borrowing and higher fees on deposit accounts all contributed to the increase. "Altogether, this paints a picture of debt that could really start to strain the checkbooks of American families," said Meghan Greene, a researcher at the nonprofit organization that authored the report.

Balances reached nearly $1 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 17% from a year earlier. The increase reflects higher spending by well-off consumers on travel and entertainment, as well as the pressure that lower-income households are facing from inflation and higher interest rates.

The related rewards are targeted to both new homebuyers and existing mortgage servicing clients.

The credit card issuer Synchrony Financial recently used FICO’s top competitor in a $1 billion deal. The choice is significant for VantageScore, but FICO remains the dominant credit score in the securitization market, according to analysts.

Wells Fargo will start letting customers earn points and miles on their rent payments as the banking giant deepens its push into credit cards. 

As people more heavily use exchanges and other providers of digital-asset-related services, they're registering more beefs with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, too. Experts say it's only a matter of time before the agency invokes its broad authority to police the sector.

COVID-19 quickly altered the hierarchy of borrower debt, with home financing payments taking precedence over credit cards and auto loans, according to TransUnion.

The agency announced it was rescinding seven policy statements issued last year meant to help companies combat fallout from COVID-19 but that the bureau's current chief said came at the expense of consumers.

Credit card balances declined most sharply as consumers cut back their spending due to the coronavirus pandemic and associated shutdown orders, the New York Fed said Thursday. But delinquencies also fell across all debt categories, thanks to government and lender relief efforts.

The pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the global and US economies, household incomes, and consumer spending. The world's most valuable financial services firm is ready to share insight around the global and US effects of COVID-19.

The outbreak has completely upended whatever expectations the industry had heading into 2020. Here's key areas that have been shaped by the pandemic, some potentially forever.

Mastercard has agreed to acquire Finicity for a reported price of $825 million, a move the card brand says will strengthen its open banking platform and expand financial services through more real-time access to data.

The agency has freed companies from reporting requirements and provided flexibility on exams to help them deal with COVID-19 fallout. It has also finished other regulatory relief efforts that were in the pipeline before the pandemic hit.

A surge in demand for home loans drove the increase, but the second quarter could see a slowdown in borrowing and more delinquencies as consumers contend with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Credit inquiries for auto lending, revolving credit cards and mortgages fell sharply in March as unemployment surged, according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report.

Five Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee sent a letter to Director Kathy Kraninger calling the agency's response to COVID-19 “tepid and ineffectual at best.”

The agency has relaxed some reporting requirements and joined other regulators in encouraging banks to help borrowers, but pressure is building on the bureau to do more to aid consumers suffering financial hardship.

The reprieve from mortgage data collection was among several changes to the agency’s supervisory and enforcement procedures to help firms responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.