Quote of the Month:
"Personal bankruptcy filings in the U.S. set a new record for the 12-months ending June 30, 2002."
| Forecasts & Statistics |
| Product Trends |
| Industry Trends |
| Issue Archive |
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| Bankruptcy Filings Set New Annual Record |
| Personal bankruptcy filings in the U.S. set a new record for the 12-months ending June 30, 2002. Statistics just released from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts indicated that personal filings totaled 1,466,105 cases, up 8.6 percent from a year earlier, and the highest total ever reached in any 12-month period. |
| Outlook for Auto Industry |
| Since commercial banks and finance companies typically have a large investment in automobile loans, they have a corresponding interest in the economic outlook for the automobile industry. Fortunately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has released the report of its annual conference on the outlook for the automobile industry. |
| Trends in Mortgage Rates |
| In last month's issue of Spotlight we reported the rise in home building. A key factor that fostered this increase was the continuing decline in home mortgage interest rates. |
| Trends in the Household Balance Sheet |
| The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has released an interesting Chicago Fed Letter written by Francois Velde. He addresses the issue: "Are U.S. households carrying too much debt?" |
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| Painless Plastic |
| Is a friend of yours (not you) having trouble maintaining an adequate bank balance or making at least a minimum payment on his or her credit card? Help is at hand for both problems: the "Clear Card." |
| Paying Church Offerings with Credit Cards |
| ParishPay LLC has reached an agreement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to allow all members of the parish to make their offerings and other donations with their credit cards. |
| Sears Card to be Used in Other Stores |
| Sears, Roebuck & Co is signing up retail partners to accept its private label credit card. Sears has the largest private label portfolio in the U.S., with 38 million accounts and $22 billion in receivables. |
| American Express Rolls Out Cash Rebate Card |
| Following the trail blazed by the Discover card, American Express has launched a new card product that gives users cash rebates. How will it attract new cardholders in a market segment already populated by large issuers? American Express will simply pay people more to use its card. |
| Those Evil Credit Cards |
| In a recent talk at Cato Institute's 25th Anniversary celebration, ABC News correspondent, David Boaz, emphasized, "capitalism is a miracle." To illustrate his point, he cited credit cards as a prime example of the creative powers of capitalism. |
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| College Students and Credit Cards |
| As students head back to college campuses this fall, a perennial debate will resume over the problems some of them have in handling their credit cards. Marketing research surveys indicate that about 57% of all full-time undergraduates own a general-purpose credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express) in their own name. |
| Economic Education |
| Many leaders of the credit industry have been concerned by the lack of economic education, especially money and credit. In her article in Business Week, Susan Marks describes a new web site [TheMint.org] that provides an engrossing lesson on personal financial management. |
| Banks Are Highly Rated |
| Do you think that banks do a good job of serving consumers? Over recent years, Harris Interactive Communications has polled consumers to see what they think about the quality of service that they have received from various industries. The results of the most recent poll and a poll five years earlier are shown in the table. |
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| EC Proposes a Debtors' Charter |
| Grantors of consumer credit in Europe are deeply concerned about a forthcoming proposal for a "Uniform Consumer Credit Code" (That is not the official title.) for members of the European Community. The proposals have not yet been officially released or approved. However, Barbara Buchanan summarizes some early gleanings of the proposals in the most recent issue of credit today. |
| A Unique Suit |
| It may not be unique, but it is certainly imaginative. The same issue of credit today also cautions that credit card companies may face a rash of suits if an angry customer in the U.K. wins his suit against Diners Club. |
| Missing Race Data in HMDA |
| We have reported the fallacies in various studies based on the data reported in compliance with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). While these studies misused the data in an effort to "prove" racial discrimination in mortgage lending, a study recently released by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) reveals that missing racial data seriously undermines efforts to monitor or prove race discrimination in mortgage lending. |