Lending

In comments to the Treasury Department, traditional financial institutions are calling for more oversight of an industry that is fast becoming a big competitive threat.

Federal financial regulators are teaming up to produce a webinar on fair lending law compliance targeted for credit unions.

A number of New York financial institutions are stepping away from medallion lending as delinquencies rise and competition for fares intensifies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has struggled internally with how to end potential discrimination in auto lending, including debating whether it should cite a large lender in the hopes of effectively ending the ability of partnering dealers to mark up loans with all lenders.

Five credit unions are beta testing a Small Business Administration-compliant lending tool as part of a partnership between the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions and Minneapolis-based Community Reinvestment Fund, USA.

The number of mortgage originations dropped 31% to 6 million in 2014 due largely to a decline in refinancing as interest rates increased, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

As a new entrant to the lending arena, marketplace lenders pose a new, untraditional competitor for borrowers’ business, but credit unions might be able to find ways to work with them, not against them.

Though loan performance has improved since the housing crisis, credit challenges persist as higher housing costs combined with stagnant wages have put increased strain on some borrowers' finances.

Nearly a decade since the Federal Reserve last hiked the key short-term Fed Funds Rate, confusion reigns over what the central bank will do at its next policy meeting later this week, but credit unions have already taken steps to prepare for a rising-rate environment.

The push to raise the statutory limit on credit union member business lending got a boost Thursday when three U.S. Senators introduced a bill that would allow NCUA to raise a credit union’s MBL cap to 27.5% of assets, from the current limit of 12.25%, provided the CU met certain requirements.