Consumer lending

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said “time is running out” for military student loan borrowers to obtain debt relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The McLean, Virginia, company is starting to “trim around the edges” of its auto portfolio, CEO Richard Fairbank said. That move stands in contrast with Capital One's leaning into its credit card business, which helped push marketing spending above $1 billion.

Vikram Pandit, who led Citi for five years, and Ash Gupta, who helped lead American Express for 41 years, have collaborated on a risk decisioning program meant to help make digital lending more efficient and cost-effective at banks of all sizes.

Bank of America is keeping to its original hiring plans despite challenging economic conditions that have prompted others to pull back, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said.

The Detroit-based lender has been a major beneficiary of the auto market’s growth during the pandemic. Looking ahead, company executives expect demand to be particularly strong among higher-income customers who have little sensitivity to higher car prices and rising interest rates.

As Celsius Network’s customer withdrawal freeze enters a full month, the beleaguered crypto lender has paid back a string of debts totaling more than $900 million during the same period to decentralized-finance platforms. 

Searching Google for information about student loan forgiveness surfaces advertisements that either appear to violate content policies or lead people to scams, according to a watchdog group, increasing public confusion as the Biden administration mulls actions on student debt.

The Texas company concealed no-cost repayment plans from borrowers and collected “hundreds of millions of dollars” in reborrowing fees, the agency said.

Klarna Bank, which advertises itself as a way to spread the cost of the latest brands and smartphones, is shelling out loans for milk and gas with cash-strapped customers looking for ways to cover basic necessities.

The online consumer lender touts its AI-based underwriting models as a key strength, but analysts say larger-than-expected losses on some of its loans are contributing to funding pressures.

Consumers welcome more generous forgiveness policies and the chance to have past defaults erased from their record, but they need assistance connecting the dots, financial services executives say.

The Singapore-based crypto lender that announced a freeze on withdrawals on Monday said it has signed a tentative agreement to be acquired by rival Nexo.

Klarna Bank is in talks to raise new equity at a valuation as low as $6 billion, a fraction of the $45.6 billion it commanded last summer as it became Europe’s most valuable startup, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Agencies supervising lenders should make it clear that the transition to less discriminatory algorithms won’t be used to punish banks for their previous use of older, less effective systems.

The buy now/pay later startup Zilch has raised a further $50 million, upping the total raise for its Series C fundraising to $160 million as it plans bolster U.S. expansion plans. 

Wells Fargo has historically underperformed its competitors in the credit card business. The Autograph card, which offers triple points for travel, dining and gas, is part of CEO Charlie Scharf’s effort to compete more effectively.

The U.S. Department of Education agreed to erase nearly $6 billion in student loans for borrowers who filed a class action lawsuit against the government after attending for-profit colleges that were found to have misled students.

JPMorgan Chase is laying off hundreds of home-lending employees and reassigning hundreds more this week as rapidly rising mortgage rates drive down demand in what had been a red-hot housing market.

Missed payments are rising among nonprime credits as higher prices on other goods leave consumers with less money to pay back their car and truck loans. The uptick may be a sign that the stellar credit environment for lenders is starting to turn.

In an NPR/Ipsos poll released Friday, 82% of respondents said they believed making college more affordable should be a bigger priority to the federal government than forgiving existing student debt.