Quote of the Month:
"NABE panelists expect economic growth to pick up to around 3 percent in the second half of 2002 and accelerate further to between 3.3 and 3.8 percent for each quarter of 2003."
| Forecasts & Statistics |
| Product Trends |
| Industry Trends |
| Issue Archive |
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| Economic Forecasters See Modest, Steady Recovery |
| There is good news in the consensus of macroeconomic forecasts made by a panel of 32 professional forecasters from the membership of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). Based on responses from a survey conducted in mid-September, 2002, NABE panelists expect economic growth to pick up to around 3 percent in the second half of 2002 and accelerate further to between 3.3 and 3.8 percent for each quarter of 2003. |
| Credit Card Performance Stabilizes |
| Credit card losses and delinquencies improved in July, 2002 relative to one year earlier, according to Moody's Investors Services. Moody's Credit Card Indexes track the performance of about $360 billion of securitized credit card receivables. |
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| Effectiveness of Credit Card Solicitations |
| A recent survey by Vertis has found that direct mail continues to be the most effective source of new cardholders. When asked how they became aware of the last credit card that they applied for, almost half of respondents said that they had received the solicitation via direct mail. |
| Insurance Policies for Credit Card Theft |
| Travelers Insurance of Hartford first offered a policy to cover identity theft in 1999. Several other insurance companies are now offering similar policies. However, Carrie Spencer noted in her article in the Greenwich Time that such coverage has been added to only one percent of homeowners' policies, and that very few claims have been filed. |
| AMEX Cuts Perks |
| Until recently, the nine million people who are enrolled in the Membership Rewards Program of American Express have been able to redeem their "points" for air travel on Delta Airlines, graphite golf clubs and Cuisinarts.... However, AmEx has found that while the program is popular, it is also expensive to administer. |
| Students' Credit Cards |
| Surely you would not want your son or daughter to go off to college without (1) a computer and (2) a credit card. According to the latest press release from Student Monitor, the percentage of students entering college for the first time who have a credit card in their own name has increased. |
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| Rising Delinquencies and Foreclosures on Home Mortgages |
| The Mortgage Bankers Association has released a report showing that during the second quarter of this year, the percentage of homeowners who were late on their mortgage payments has been rising. The overall seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for conventional loans on one-to-four unit residential properties rose from 4.65 percent in the first quarter of 2002 to 4.77 percent in the second quarter. |
| Review of Predatory Lending Study |
| A North Carolina-based nonprofit advocacy group, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), has released a study claiming to show that North Carolina's 1999 anti-predatory lending law saved consumers $100 million on home mortgages originated during the year 2000. The authors evaluated data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) from 1998- 2000 and concluded that subprime mortgage lending continued to "thrive" in North Carolina after passage of the statute and low-income borrowers continued "to have access to a wide range of choices when selecting a home loan." |
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| Australia Attempts to Reform Bank Credit Card Pricing |
| In spite of strong objections from Visa and MasterCard, Australia's central bank has ordered major changes in the way that credit card banks price their services. As John Shaw explains in his article in the Wall Street Journal, the central bank claimed that the sweeping changes "would lower costs and promote competition." |
| History of Bankruptcy Laws |
| It has been observed, "He who has not learned from history is bound to repeat it." Accordingly, we summarize a review by Todd J. Zywicki of David A. Skeel, Jr.'s book: Debt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America. Instead of being just a legal history book, it is "a comprehensive analyses of the past, present and future of bankruptcy in America." |
| FTC Settles with Citigroup Regarding "Predatory Lending" |
| Back in March 2001, the Federal Trade Commission filed a suit against Associates First Capital Corp. in the federal court in Atlanta charging that the subprime lender had engaged in abusive lending practices. In his article in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Beckett reported that among the alleged abuses cited by the FTC were "deceptive marketing practices that induced clients to consolidate their debts into home loans with higher interest rates, costs and fees; inducing borrowers to unknowingly purchase optional credit insurance that would cover monthly payments on the loan if they were seriously injured, and abusive debt collection practices." |