This is a difficult time for American reporting. Most of America’s attention is shifting between the polar magnetism of Casey Anthony (see CNN’s “Essential guide to the Casey Anthony Trial“) and the debt ceiling crisis.

Left to progress under the radar is a substantial change in how Americans buy homes. You may have seen some reference to the qualified residential mortgage (“the QRM”) in the business section of your paper or perhaps from Bank (more…)

MetaBank says that the Office of Thrift Supervision’s cease and desist order against the Iowa thrift resulted in an after-tax loss of $3.4 million. MetaBank was cited for a number of significant legal problems. The OTS said that MetaBank had engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in its i-advance credit program. The i-advance offered credit to holders of certain MetaBank-issued debit cards. When consumers (more…)

New rules in Dodd-Frank will soon change how people pay with their debit card.

Beginning on July 21st, retailers will be allowed to establish a minimum amount for any transaction that uses a credit (more…)

In the wake of the unprecedented back of foreclosures, housing values are often now determined through a process known as the broker’s price opinion (“BPO”).

BPOs are popular in the foreclosure process because they are cheaper than an appraisal. A regular appraisal might cost $500.

A BPO costs only a fraction of that amount and it can be done quickly. Those factors explain both its popularity and its pitfalls. The (more…)

Perhaps because of the field’s relative infancy, many people are still searching for a way to differentiate between “good” and “bad” prepaid cards. Few cards offer the same services and there is even some disagreement on which features are good and which are bad for consumers. Pricing is relatively opaque because so many costs are dependent upon how consumers use the card, and even then, the (more…)