Credit quality

Investors are growing worried about lackluster loan growth this year at community banks.

Freddie Mac is delaying the soft launch of its Phrase 3 updates to the Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset by a week.

The Arkansas company has spent two years trying to reassure nervous investors and analysts that it can rapidly book real estate loans using conservative practices.

Consumer default rates are up month-to-month, which may reflect a gap between spending and income that is stressing second mortgages and bank cards, Standard & Poor's and Experian find.

Consumer credit varies nationally due to regional variations in income and the cost of living. To get a sense of where it's strongest and weakest, here's a look at the five best and worst states for consumer credit scores.

Mortgage defaults keep rising and are getting much nearer to where they were in 2016 as damage from natural disasters continues to add to slight upward pressure on credit.

The share of lenders easing credit for government-sponsored enterprise-eligible loans is at a high not seen since Fannie Mae started a survey to track it.

Default rates for first-lien mortgages rose slightly higher in August and remain lower year-over-year, but recent hurricanes could intensify loan performance concerns.

Efforts to persuade regulators to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to use alternative credit scores would stifle competition between the credit bureaus and FICO and do little to expand access to credit, according to industry analyst Chris Whalen.

As head of Fannie Mae's single-family mortgage business, Andrew Bon Salle wants to ease the burden of loan-level price adjustments, streamline condo loan approvals and expand rep and warrant relief. But even he admits there are limits to his power.