Consumer lending

Some 16 million applications for student debt relief will be approved by this week, provided the White House plan survives court challenges, President Biden said Thursday. 

Polyanna Unruh embraced her employer's tuition-assistance benefit to go from high-school graduate to MBA.

Following the verdict, the student-loan servicer could potentially owe Louis Beryl more than $4.4 million in severance money. Navient fired Beryl less than three months after acquiring Earnest, the student loan refinancing company that he co-founded.

The online consumer lender has told about 140 employees who process loan applications that it is eliminating their positions. The job cuts come as Upstart struggles to get banks and other investors interested in buying enough of its loans.

Student loans haven't delivered their promise of a middle-class life for millions of Americans, and the U.S. system of financing higher education via individual borrowing is making inequalities in the country worse, according to a new study.

Credit bureaus should know better than to include "impossible" data, such as someone defaulting on a loan before they were born, says Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by six Republican-led states challenging President Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan, finding the states failed to show they'd be directly harmed.

A Wisconsin taxpayers group asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block President Biden's student-loan relief plan from taking effect, accusing him of usurping the power of Congress and costing taxpayers potentially more than $1 trillion.

Postal banking in the U.S. hasn't gotten off the ground, partly because of strong resistance from American banks. But a successful trial offering of affordable consumer loans by Toronto-Dominion and Canada Post, and their plans to take them nationwide, are a reminder that the idea persists.

The New York State Department of Financial Services found that the community bank's policies led to minority borrowers paying more for auto loans. Though it did not find evidence of intentional discrimination, the bank agreed to pay a $950,000 fine and restitution.

Amid fears of a recession, industry observers will be on the lookout for signs of distress in credit cards and auto loans. One analyst said "the positive trends we've been seeing are starting to erode, and the pressure is going to start building."

Tally Technologies, a startup that automates credit card payments, has tripled its valuation to $855 million in a funding round led by Sway Ventures.

The Biden administration was accused in a lawsuit by six Republican-led states of overstepping its authority with a plan to forgive federal student loans.

President Biden's loan forgiveness plan will wipe out about one-third of student debt owed to the federal government, with lower-income borrowers and those living in Southern states getting the biggest boost, according to analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

President Biden's decision to forgive some federal student debt will cost at least $400 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office estimated, which would wipe out the $238 billion in deficit reduction from his tax and climate plan. 

The online lender approved Black applicants at lower rates than non-Hispanic whites, according to a law firm that monitors its artificial intelligence models. Upstart said it's an industry leader in fair lending but acknowledged room for improvement, calling disparities "an industry-wide challenge."

So far this year, banks have reported that borrowers continue to repay their loans and delinquency rates remain low. But there are signs that this may change.

Verve has offered its pumpkin spice loan since 2014 as part of a full menu of themed products.