Consumer lending

Overall consumer borrowing grew from October to November but decelerated to the slowest pace since January as Americans took out fewer loans for big-ticket items such as cars and education.

The FTC and the State of Florida on Friday charged a payment processing business with credit card laundering and illegally assisting and facilitating a nationwide debt relief telemarketing scheme that allegedly bilked millions of dollars from consumers.

Macy’s has announced plans to consolidate four credit and customer service center facilities into three, resulting in 4,800 job cuts for the Cincinnati-based retail giant.

Both consumers with health insurance and those lacking any coverage are reporting problems paying medical bills, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The New York Times.

While it searches for a permanent deputy director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has named David Silberman to serve as its acting No. 2 starting next week.

A number of community banks, eager to make inroads with underbanked clients, are looking to offer employer-sponsored payroll loans.

The FTC on Thursday announced it has stopped illegal debt collection tactics of several debt collection operations. The crackdown includes four cases highlighted in Collections & Credit Risk. The FTC issued a statement about the cases to point out the success of Operation Collection Protection.

After several years of tussling with mortgage rules and their implementation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is focusing on several areas that will primarily affect the nonbank market, including debt collection, payday-type loans and prepaid cards.

Most U.S. states have established student loan forgiveness programs that are often offered to public service employees to help borrowers who have federal aid or don’t qualify for Department of Education programs.

Banks finally appear ready to turn the corner on how they view overdrafts — and the change of direction could help not only the industry's public image, but also the bottom line.