| Bankruptcy filings are coming back
When the federal bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005, many people feared that the relief from crushing debt that bankruptcy is supposed to provide would be badly compromised. But today, two facts are clear. Far fewer people are filing, less than half the previous number. And the law still works for those in the direst circumstances. Judy and Henry Vandemark of Highland have been there. Late last year, they started talking to a bankruptcy attorney after falling behind on a personal loan from a finance company, Beneficial Finance. Efforts to work out a repayment plan they could afford failed, they said. "They wouldn't give an inch," Henry Vandemark said. "Even when we first discussed it with the lawyer why we wanted to go to bankruptcy, our lawyer contacted their lawyer ...
RBA Reassuring on Banks
Within a month, four of the Big Five banks will produce interim earnings while the Bank of Queensland trots out its figures in the middle of next week.The ANZ, St George, National and Westpac will all produce solid profit performances in the first half of the 2007 financial year and analysts are generally agreed that the main points to be watched will be the level of bad and doubtful debts in housing mortgages and personal, such as credit cards.And while there were fears there could be an upsurge in the level of dodgy loans and actual losses, it is now becoming clear from the APRA and Reserve Bank data, plus the RBA's financial stability statement on Monday that much of that concern was misplaced.In fact the RBA's comments on the banks and the banking system should be read by all bank shareholders: unless the RBA has made a horrible error, it's clear there are no black holes in bank balance sheets.Perhaps the most interesting area to watch is the implicit warning about the contraction of lending margins on housing mortgages because of low demand and high levels of competition.The RBA points out that there are hardly any mortgages being sold where the borrower is paying the bank headline adjustable or fixed rate, such is the intensity of competition.Banks' share prices have increased by around 14 per cent over the past six months, slightly underperforming the broader market.
Enhances Content and Revenue Model of Marquee Personal Finance and ...
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InterSearch Group, Inc. (AMEX: IGO), a leading operator of industry specific destination portals and provider of Internet search services announced today that it has rolled out the enhanced edition of its marquee personal finance online property, www.Banks.com. Banks.com is an online consumer finance marketplace aggregating information on a broad range of products and fees including: mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, college financing, debt management, retirement, and more. The online property now also features a wealth of resources and advice on personal finance topics in a convenient user format. Banks.com generates revenues through a hybrid model combining pay-per-click and affiliate arrangements with advertisers and paid search. "We acquired Banks.com in September 2006 to create a preeminent online consumer banking one-stop marketplace built around a domain name that is synonymous with that offering.
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