Banks to tighten lending criteria on loans and reduce credit card limits Photo: PA It comes as more lenders said they had reduced the availability of mortgages rather than increased it during the past three months following a “deterioration” in the cost and access to wholesale funds. It comes despite billions [ Read More → ]

LOS ANGELES — Federal prosecutors have announced a settlement with a Los Angeles-based bank that was sued along with two auto dealerships for allegedly charging non-Asian customers higher interest rates on car loans. Under the agreement, Nara Bank will pay up to $410,000 to customers who were overcharged, according to a [ Read More → ]

Massachusetts lawmakers will consider new rules today to protect consumers from abuses involving overdraft charges on bank accounts, unsolicited loans from financial institutions, and reverse mortgages. For instance, State Senator Steven Baddour, a Democrat from Methuen, has filed a bill to require institutions that mail unsolicited loan offers - such [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Lenders are ramping up efforts to avoid home foreclosures, but a report by bank regulators says more than half of borrowers who get help fall behind again. More than 50 percent of homeowners with loans modified in the first half of last year had missed at least two months [ Read More → ]

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has revealed a package of measures to protect consumers in the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) market and ensure they are better treated when buying PPI or complaining about it. Single premium PPI products have long been controversial, particularly with consumer watchdogs who claim that the policies [ Read More → ]

Decline in the consumer credit market continues, but the contraction rate has stabilised, according to new figures published today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA). Overall, business written by FLA members, who provide secured and unsecured loans, credit and store cards, and motor finance, fell by 17% in July 2009 [ Read More → ]

Companies responsible for selling more than 40 per cent of single premium payment protection policies with unsecured personal loans have agreed to review their sales and compensate customers who were mis-sold the product. The Financial Service Authority now wants to target other companies which have mis-sold PPI which [ Read More → ]

In what federal prosecutors described as the longest sentence ever imposed for a financial crime in Southern California, a Riverside County man was sentenced Monday to 100 years in prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of about $35 million. Richard Monroe Harkless, 65, who ran the operation from [ Read More → ]

Crummy credit, no verifiable income, no home loan. Beginning Thursday, that’s the new rule under Federal Reserve guidelines that require lenders to prove a person’s ability to repay a loan in the traditional way - not foreclosure - before awarding one. Read the original article at Palmbeachpost

It’s no coincidence that HSBC should offer its lowest ever mortgage rate – 1.99pc for two years – just as official confirmation came this week that new borrowing has fallen to a record low. Lenders are having to compete harder than ever to stay in business and homebuyers [ Read More → ]