Consumer lending

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is overhauling its consumer complaint portal after receiving 6.6 million complaints last year, more than double the 3.2 million in 2024, citing abuse by credit repair firms and social media influencers.

In 2024, a Honduras-born man who was buying a motorcycle was turned down for a loan. Two years later, Truist Financial is facing a discrimination lawsuit — and the plaintiff's lawyer says many lenders are vulnerable to the same accusations.

Banking and fintech trade groups have filed suit against the State of Oregon over a new lending law that they say unlawfully restricts interest-rate exportation by out-of-state state banks and threatens access to credit.

Research from the New York Fed suggests that the legalization of sports betting has important implications for consumer lenders.

Applications from Enova International and Opportunity Financial for national bank charters present a danger to consumers. The Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should block them.

The Federal Reserve's former top regulator said recent efforts to reform regulation and supervision have boosted executive compensation and share buybacks, not the broader economy.

Since Michael Rhodes became its CEO, Ally Financial has gotten bigger by thinking more narrowly. Instead of growing the company's web of businesses, the company has exited some sectors while doubling down on what Ally does best: auto lending.

Housing advocates and compliance firms are suing to block a rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that they say guts the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Private credit should no longer be evaluated primarily as a yield story. Under current conditions, the underlying structure of deals is playing a much larger role in determining performance.

There are a lot of worrisome things going on out there, but the credit markets overall appear to be okay. For now. And that, really, is all that matters.

The 90-day-plus delinquency rate on student loans hit 10.3% in the first quarter, and New York Fed researchers warn that a second wave of defaults could be coming. Evidence is mixed regarding the likely impact on other consumer-lending segments.

Private credit in 2026 may be like subprime mortgages in 2008, but for banks, at least, the reality may be different this time around.

The Chicago-based fintech, which offers high-cost loans, has agreed to acquire the parent company of BNC National Bank. The deal would grant OppFi a national bank charter, which offers a way around state interest rate caps.

In evaluating Enova's proposed acquisition of Grasshopper Bancorp, regulators must decide whether to allow lending products with annual percentage rates of nearly 100% into the national banking system.

Portable mortgages are an interesting idea in theory, and might work well, if underwritten properly. But making existing mortgages portable on a retroactive basis would be both unworkable and unfair.

Nationwide, Americans are falling behind on their car loans. But among Ally Financial's customers, delinquencies fell during the first quarter.

Banks are currently underwriting mortgages based on one-year property insurance contracts. The Federal Housing Finance Authority should use its influence to build longer-term climate risk assessments into loans.

Jay Plum, head of consumer lending at Fifth Third Bank, says artificial intelligence is fundamentally shifting relationships between banks and their third-party software vendors, allowing banks to do things on their own that they would previously rely on vendors to do for them, like identify risky loans and prepare for exams.

A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear a challenge to a Colorado law intended to combat "rent-a-bank," arrangements that would impose Colorado's interest rate caps on certain out-of-state banks.

EWA programs benefit workers across the country, making it more likely that they will be able to avoid high-cost credit products like payday loans. Efforts to restrict them will harm consumers.