Transunion

About 175 million Americans now have access to a credit card, and the delinquency rate has gone up along with that, but an expert at TransUnion, which issued the data Tuesday, said the underlying metrics suggest there is no cause for alarm — yet.

Some speculate that the banks who do business with credit reporting agencies may be looking for alternatives after mounting concerns about their ability to keep information private. But breaking up is hard to do.

Some fear that the removal of such data from individual credit reports could lead lenders to believe a consumer is a better bet than they really are.

Use of alternative data in traditional credit scoring would help consumers access the banking system and lower their cost of credit.

TransUnion’s analysis of credit card applications and transactions finds fraudsters continue to steal more, but the rate of increase is slowing.

The long-running slide in mortgage payments 60 or more days past due will continue next year, and perhaps even longer as borrowers benefit from favorable economic conditions.

Fed researchers purported to show that consumers who use peer-to-peer loans have bad financial outcomes, but questions quickly emerged about the data they used.

The report’s authors presented findings that seemed to reflect issues with the peer-to-peer lending industry, but they actually relied on data from a much broader category of loans.

The Cleveland Fed's conclusion that U.S. consumers are typically worse off after getting online loans encountered strong pushback from industry groups and the company that provided the data.

Calls for less reliance on credit bureaus and Social Security numbers for verification are leading many to envision a future of identity on a distributed ledger.