Brokerage held liable in predatory mortgage loans

When investors are held liable for the actions of the companies they fund and the mortgage loans they purchase on the secondary market, it can have a chilling effect on predatory lending practices. In an important recent case, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision that Lehman Brothers knowingly participated in fraudulent predatory loans being made to subprime borrowers.

Household debt in America
During a one-day conference on July 19, the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, presented a number of interesting panels on debt. At the event, The Debt Survey: Public Recognizes Debt as a Fast Growing Problem in U.S., was introduced.

Start Smart: Money Management for Teens
The latest issue of FDIC Consumer News, published by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, contains a special free guide to help teens make good money decisions.

Predatory lending: Its impact on Armed Forces
The Department of the Defense has released a highly anticipated report on "Predatory Lending Practices Directed at Members of the Armed Forces and Their Dependents," which details the harm done to military personnel and their families by the predatory lending establishments clustered around military bases nationwide.

Top academics start credit/bankruptcy blog
Credit Slips is a new blog featuring a discussion on credit and bankruptcy, with participation from professor and author Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, an expert on bankruptcy.

Experian’s new credit scores are available to consumers
The three national credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, announced earlier this year that they have developed a credit score model to compete with the current industry dominant FICO score from Fair Isaacs. The new scoring model, now available to consumers, uses an academic scoring model (A, B, C, etc.) as opposed to the FICO numbers-based model. The first to reach the consumer market, VantageScore from Experian, costs $5.95.

Race, ethnicity and subprime mortgages
The Center for Responsible Lending released a new study showing that African-Americans and Latinos get high-priced subprime mortgages far more frequently than whites - even when they are equally qualified.

Credit Scores, Reports and Getting Ahead

Consumer credit reports and scores are playing a growing role in the economic mobility of consumers today. The Brookings Institution has released a report titled "Credit Scores, Reports, and Getting Ahead in America" that offers interesting insights into reliance on these "magic numbers."