Consumer lending

The Federal Trade Commission has approved final amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule, including a change aimed at protecting consumers from fraud by prohibiting four discrete types of payment methods favored by con artists and scammers.

A new report based on research from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies indicates student loans bet has a potentially strong impact on consumers seeking to move from renting to buying a home. It also could delay their ability to build savings for a mortgage down payment.

The economy grew at a slower pace in the third quarter but consumer spending levels remain solid, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest Economy in a Snapshot report.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's consumer complaint database is riddled with errors and distrusted by some of its own employees, according to internal documents and interviews with current and former agency officials.

There was mixed news released Tuesday concerning homeowners facing financial difficulties.

New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill requiring debt collectors to temporarily stop collection activity for victims of identity theft if they receive a written notice from the consumer.

Despite the House Financial Services Committee's passage of a bill to convert the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's leadership structure from a single director to a commission, Democrats have largely opposed the bill.

A Pennsylvania company that enrolls more than 100,000 students at for-profit trade schools and colleges across the U.S. and Canada will pay $95.5 million to settle claims it illegally paid recruiters and exaggerated the career-placement abilities of its schools.

In a growing number of cash-strapped Southern Illinois counties, state’s attorney’s offices are securing contracts with third-party collection agencies to pursue delinquent court fines and fees – sometimes for violations that occurred decades ago.

A federal court has granted a request by the Federal Trade Commission to shut down a tech support scam that allegedly bilked consumers out of more than $17 million by pretending to represent Microsoft, Apple and other major tech companies.