Tag Archives: Credit Risk

Equifax announced the availability of Equifax Dimensions, a new product created to deliver a more in-depth picture of past credit behavior to predict future trends. Users of the new solution can see up to two years' worth of detailed consumer credit activity, allowing them to identify consumer patterns such as a borrower's financial ""breaking point"" that will lead to default and which consumers are most likely to open new accounts.

Continuing to shrug off sequester cutbacks, but feeling the effects of adverse weather, the nation's economy ""continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace"" from early July through late August, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its Beige Book assessment. Echoing--or perhaps anticipating--governors' concerns at the upcoming policy meeting, the Beige Book said ""hiring held steady or increased modestly"" while ""upward price pressures remained subdued, and prices increased slightly.""

Tight lending standards may be keeping some prospective borrowers out of the market, but according to LendingTree, consumers overall are increasing their likelihood of getting approved for a home loan with higher credit scores and lower loan-to-value (LTV) ratios. Over the last year, average credit scores for prospective borrowers rose by more than 10 points, LendingTree revealed in a Q2 borrower health report. At the same time, average LTVs improved, falling 1.6 percent. According to the report, prospective borrowers in Washington D.C. have the strongest profile when it comes to qualifying for a home loan.

Homeowners whose homes are located in designated flood zones are required to purchase flood insurance, and others in areas where natural disasters are common may also be required to insure against those risks. However, CoreLogic economists recently asked if that is enough to guard against these risks. In particular, they asked, are homeowners more likely to default when natural disaster strikes? The answer, in short, is ""yes.""

President Obama is trying to solve the wrong problem by calling, as he did in his speech in Phoenix, for the end of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as we know it. To be sure, Fannie and Freddie were not the hallmarks of responsibility in the mortgage meltdown, but have gotten a bad rap. For all their housing expertise, they missed all the signals of the housing bubble (but then again so did Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and his successor Ben S. Bernanke who dismissed it when the first signs of the meltdown emerged). Instead of suggesting replacing Fannie and Freddie to restore the nation's housing markets, the president should be proposing to return them to their original charters.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) scheduled two workshops specifically for directors of national community banks and federal savings associations supervised by the regulator.

Legislators heard--or perhaps misheard--customers when they grumbled about ATM fees and clamped down even though there is a logical argument for them. Now, a new fee opportunity for major banks comes in the form of pay cards--debit cards loaded with your take-home pay each time you get paid. Workers must pay a fee to access their own wages and may be charged a fee for not using the card. The pay cards slither under, over, or around the definitions resulting from Dodd Frank for fees banks are permitted to charge for credit and debit cards or even for store cards.

In recent months, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took important steps toward transparency with the release of historical credit performance data. The move also paved the way for credit risk sharing transactions as the FHFA looks to reduce the GSEs' role in housing finance. In an effort to help investors ""evaluate upcoming credit-sensitive securitization proposals from the GSEs,"" Fitch Ratings completed an analysis of the historical data in a recent report. Overall, the report determined loans originated from 2009 and beyond should outperform earlier vintages.