Credit

The use of rent data in credit models is allowing people with low credit scores or thin credit files to get loans. But consumer advocates warn the use of that data could harm the very people it’s supposed to help. 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac asked originators to resubmit applications that contained errors and adjust sold mortgage information due to incorrect life-of-loan representations and warranties.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, home equity line of credit volume was up 31% from the same period the year before.

Borrowers must be protected against discrimination at all steps of the credit process — including after they’ve already been granted credit, the regulator affirmed.

During the pandemic, consumer lenders have found it easier to collect payments because the federal student loan moratorium has made many borrowers more liquid. A plan for blanket forgiveness reportedly under consideration by President Biden could sustain that trend.

Mortgage finance stakeholders must pay careful attention to “nuts-and-bolts” which, if ignored or misunderstood, can become landmines when implementing even the most well-intended new policies or practices writes a senior advisor at the Milken Institute Center for Financial Markets

While relatively few of these consumers have applied for mortgages recently, the findings point to an untapped market that lenders might be able to reach out to as refinancing dries up.

If lenders get to choose the credit-scoring model, the Big Three credit bureaus will likely set a price for VantageScore that is super low, so low that FICO cannot compete, just as Uber decimated the taxicab industry by setting prices artificially low until the taxicabs were gone, writes an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

Esusu, a financial technology company that aims to help bridge the racial wealth gap by reporting rent payments to credit agencies, has become one of only a few Black-owned startups to reach a valuation of $1 billion after closing a Series B round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

In a letter to the agency’s new director, top Senate Democrats recommended policy steps intended to limit mistakes in consumers’ credit files that they said “can ruin lives.”