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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, now led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, agreed to temporarily halt enforcement and litigation over its medical debt rule, handing the banking industry an immediate reprieve.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said American Honda Finance Corp. inaccurately reported 300,000 borrowers as delinquent who had paused loan payments during the pandemic.

Equifax agreed to resolve allegations that it failed to conduct proper investigations of consumer disputes, ignored evidence and allowed previously deleted inaccuracies to be reinstated on credit reports. The credit reporting bureau also shared inaccurate credit scores and data about consumers with lenders.

The action rids the Montana bank of a $62.8 million loan that's long been on its watch list. It comes as First Interstate's new CEO looks to put his own stamp on the bank.

Regulatory shifts and loan growth are some of the hot-button topics banks will seek to address as they start sharing their fourth-quarter reports next week.

Debt collection trade group ACA International and Specialized Collections Systems, a Houston-based debt collector, filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleging its medical debt rule is outside its authority.

Two trade groups filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claiming it exceeded its authority and ignored the legislative history on medical debts.

Experian said it has gone "above and beyond the law" to investigate consumer disputes related to the accuracy of information.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule that will remove medical  bills from credit reports to end what the bureau called "coercive debt collection practices."

With default levels drifting higher, some program participants are calling on the incoming Trump team to rethink the Small Business Administration's approach to underwriting.

Affirm partners with Sixth Street to sell its buy now/pay later loans to the investment firm; Associated Banc-Corp promotes Steven Zandpour to deputy head of consumer and business banking; Visa Direct speeds up its money transfers; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Misconceptions about the risks of private credit must not be allowed to affect important policy decisions about an industry that provides vital support to a vast swath of the American economy.

Institutions like BMO Financial Group and Bank of Nova Scotia saw earnings bogged down by increased loan loss provisions and higher tax rates.

The Toronto-based bank set aside CA$1.5 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter to cover potentially bad loans. Executives say higher-than-normal impaired losses could persist next year.

Under the Biden administration, a trio of regulatory agencies have teamed up to limit consumers' access to credit. The incoming administration should force them to stand down.

Artificial intelligence systems built to assess creditworthiness are trained on data that implicitly accepts past discriminatory lending decisions as legitimate signals about borrowers today.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said the FICO credit-scoring model has drawbacks in price, predictiveness and market competition, and stakeholders should develop a more open-sourced model that uses artificial intelligence.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned companies about modern-day surveillance of workers and requirements to follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The Wilmington, North Carolina, company reported a breakout quarter for loan production, but profits fell as an increase in nonperforming loans led to higher provisioning.

Despite strong growth and solid profits, the Miami-based lender, formerly a business development company, still hasn't convinced the market it fits in as a bank.