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A new stats from an industry report revealed that more consumers were in trouble paying on their credit cards and other debts during the first quarter of the year in view of increased prices for food and gas.

The report released by the American Banker Association shows that there was a deterioration compared to the prior quarters and described the most recent quarter as a "soft patch."

According to the independent assessment made by Moody’s, China’s local government debt burden may be larger by 3.5 trillion yuan ($540 billion) than estimated by local auditors which places banks on the hook for deeper losses that could threaten their credit ratings.

Addressing the estimate by China's state auditor that its local governments have chalked up 10.7 trillion yuan of debt, Moody's said it found more potential loans after accounting for discrepancies in figures given by various Chinese authorities.

The European Central Bank made a statement that it would further accept Greek debt as collateral for loans unless all the major credit rating agencies inclusively declare it to be in default.

The ECB said it would rely on the principle of using the best rating available from the agencies – Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch – the official said.

Earlier S&P’s warned that a plan supported by Germany and France for banks to roll over their holdings of Greek debt into new bonds would constitute a “selective default”.

According to the stats released by the Federal Reserve in April American consumers borrowed more money for the 7th consecutive month. However, the central bank reports that Americans cut back on their credit cards.

Consumer borrowing increased by about $7.2 billion boosted by greater demand for school and auto loans. A category that measures credit card use fell for the second time in three months. It has risen only twice since August 2008, the height of the financial crisis.

According to the report released by the Federal Reserve the financial system purportedly continued its pace towards healing from credit crisis. The survey polled senior bank executives who reported an increased demand for commercial real estate loans even though there was a significant damage caused to residential housing markets where demand for mortgages declined.

But banks have been cautious about lending and consumers wary of piling on debt, and the data showed there was still some ways to go before credit conditions return to normal.

Bank of America Corp has put up at least $1 billion worth of toxic mortgage assets for sale according to media reports.

Players can place their bids by the end of December for the assets which among other things include already written-off loans and mortgage-servicing rights.

The asset sale is part of a larger effort by the bank to unwind a trove of assets in the wake of the purchases of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch.
 

The US second largest provider of funding for home mortgages Freddie Mac plans to lift some fees on loans it finances which shows there are greater risks even for borrowers making regular payments.

In the bulletin released this week the mortgage giant says it will some so-called "delivery fees" in March to cover increased risks on loans covering large portions of a property's value. The fees are charged to lenders, but will likely raise costs on many loans for both purchases and refinancings, including those already funded by Freddie Mac.

The New York Federal Reserve has joined the Pacific investment Management Company, better known as Pimco, and investment management firm BlackRock in a move to make Bank of America purchase back $47 billion in mortgage bonds. The news was reported by Bloomberg Tuesday. Later Kathy Patrick, lead attorney for the consortium, confirmed that the group owns more than 25% of the voting rights in more than $47 billion worth of Bank of America securities.

More and more users of the payment system Perfect Money are discussing the changes introduced by the company which are for some reason not made public by the management of the payment processor itself. Customers of Perfect Money noticed, in particular, that they have some new options inside their accounts which are:

- Credit status
- Trust score

The Credit status option can be seen soon after you log into your account on your main page. At the moment, as many users report, they see “Normal, no overdue loans” note in the Credit status field.

Mint.com has partnered with Lending Club, the leading U.S. peer lending network, to involve it into new Goals program that helps Mint users to get out of debt and save money more efficiently. Under the new program customers will get out of credit card debt faster, pay less interest and keep more of their money for what really matters, says the official statement.

Lending Club offers personal unsecured loans for paying off high-interest debt at rates starting at 7.93 percent APR. It is 53% less than the overall national credit card APR of 16.81 percent.

The Banker magazine's Top 1000 ranked Bank of America as the world's top bank in terms of capital strength shifting thus JPMorgan lower on the list. Meantime, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) tops the profit league.

Bank of America’s Tier 1 capital increased by 1/3 from last year to $160 billion, while JPMorgan’s Tier 1 capital declined 2% to $133 billion. The magazine uses Tier 1 capital as a measure of a bank's ability to lend on a large scale and endure shocks.

This week Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $102 million to end an investigation launched by Massachusetts prosecutors into the company’s unfair and deceptive lending practices.

According to the statement of Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general, Morgan Stanley which funded subprime loans throughout the country, improperly loaned billions of dollars to New Century which then sold loans to unqualified borrowers in the state. Morgan Stanley also packaged these risky loans and sold them to big investors like pension funds.

A $16 million program was launched conjointly by Opportunity International, Melinda Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation to help people in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa gain easier access to savings accounts and agricultural loans.

mCheck, a leading mobile payment provider, and Swayam Krishi Sangam NGO, a registered society that acts as a Business Correspondent intermediary for banks, have partnered to launch an innovative model for cash-free microfinance for unbanked and under-banked customers.

Bad credit debt consolidation process could help people save a lot of money in the future and help to lower monthly loan and credit card payments.

Consolidating all the credits and debts into one lump sum is a good chance to get a lower overall interest rate on all of these debts, or also only have one monthly payment.

In the beginning people lower monthly loan and credit card payments are not seen but over the long run a lot of money are to be saved and those payments will drastically decrease.