Credit scores

The S&P 500’s financials sector drops more than 3%; former Amex chief’s venture capital firm is backing a credit scoring company.

It’s not just weaker underwriting and higher household debt levels that are driving past-due rates to their highest levels in seven years.

Traditional credit scoring is under siege from alternative underwriting, and TransUnion is joining the future by investing in other emerging trends such as mobile device security and health care payments.

Mark Begor said Wednesday that banks and other customers will receive regular updates on the credit reporting agency’s efforts to improve its cybersecurity in the wake of last year’s massive data breach.

Supporters say pending legislation would help consumers with little or no credit history. But the bill would instead roll back key consumer protections.

The annual progress report on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorships reiterated that a new credit score model will likely not be operational until after the implementation of a new Single Security Initiative.

The team that founded marketplace lender Avant Inc. raised about $15 million to start a firm that will use blockchain technology and digital tokens to motivate companies to share data about customer identities and credit worthiness.

Use of alternative data in traditional credit scoring would help consumers access the banking system and lower their cost of credit.

A former senior executive at Equifax Inc. was criminally charged for allegedly selling almost $1 million worth of shares before the company’s announcement last year that it had suffered a massive data breach.

A late addition to regulatory relief legislation would direct the Federal Housing Finance Agency to review credit-scoring alternatives, but some say the provision is redundant.

Artificial intelligence is expected to bring financial services to millions, yet it could also make unethical decisions that unfairly deny credit and widen the divide between haves and have-nots, says Nicolas Economou of the nonprofit Future Society.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Friday it will give commenters more time to weigh in on a potential update to the credit scoring requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The hunt for solid credit card customers is driving issuers to try creative new approaches, including digging deeper for good prospects who fall outside the usual parameters of U.S. credit scoring models.

Housing regulators should not adopt an alternative credit scoring model until the banking industry is on board.

Readers react to the Federal Housing Finance Agency considering changing its credit scoring policy, slam the possibility of enforcing mandatory penalties for data breaches at credit reporting agencies, weigh the possible nomination of a credit union regulator to the CFPB, and more.

Petal has received a $13 million funding round from Valar Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund that specializes in financial technology, to use artificial intelligence to fill holes in legacy risk vetting.

High credit scores are good and low ones are bad -- but serving either sector comes with some unique challenges and opportunities. Here's what you need to know.

The people-helping-people model proffered by LendingClub and others quickly foundered, but several startups aim to bring it back with the help of distributed ledger technology.

Ant Financial, the internet finance behemoth controlled by billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma, has apologized for roping unsuspecting users into its fledgling but fast-growing credit-score system.

Billionaire’s bid to buy MoneyGram is his latest setback trying to crack the U.S. market; banks want to stick with FICO while nonbanks want to use VantageScore.