Women accounted for all of U.S. job losses in December, dramatically underscoring the pandemic's unrelentingly disastrous impact on working women.

Actually, it's even worse than that: Technically, women accounted for more than 111% of jobs lost last month. The U.S. economy lost a net 140,000 jobs in December, the first month since April that total payrolls declined, the Labor Department said Friday. But women lost 156,000 jobs overall during the month, while men gained 16,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC).

The government's grim monthly report, the last released under President Trump, shows the pandemic's ongoing wreckage of the U.S. economy—and the extent to which that damage has been felt by women, especially women of color. Black and Latina women working in retail, restaurants, and other "essential" service-sector industries, often for very low pay, have been disproportionately laid off amid the pandemic's lockdowns and business closures.

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t been great for love. It derailed weddings and honeymoons — and some married couples are so eager to split that they’re looking to take out loans to fund divorces.

The number of inquiries to fund a divorce that Loanry received was up 62% through November 2020 compared with all of 2019, according to the online loan marketplace company after analyzing search divorce-related queries it received from Google during those periods. The company’s data, broken down by state, also indicated that the largest divorce inquiry increases came from Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia.

“2020 [was] a stressful year, more stressful than most,” said Ethan Taub, founder of Loanry. “And sadly we have seen the strain take its toll across the board, including in the marital home.”

For the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States, entrepreneurship represents more than just owning a business and pursuing the proverbial American Dream. Instead, the ability for Black people to participate in local, regional, and global markets represents a dream deferred by systemic racism and discrimination. Consequently, an analysis of Black business ownership can offer insight into the degree to which America is truly the land of opportunity.

Inspired by the work of the Path to 15|55 initiative, this research explores the state of Black-owned employer businesses (hereafter referred to as Black businesses). Using the Census Bureau’s 2017 Annual Business Survey (ABS), which replaced the Survey of Business Owners (SBO), we analyzed data at the national and metropolitan levels to compare Black and non-Black businesses.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Seven U.S. states and Washington, D.C., sued a U.S. banking regulator on Tuesday, seeking to void a rule they said could encourage predatory lending by preventing them from enforcing state laws against exploitative interest rates.

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency seeks to undo the “True Lender Rule,” which the regulator finalized in October.

The OCC issued the rule to clarify when a bank is the “true lender” for a loan originated in one state and sold off into another. The watchdog said it would provide “legal certainty necessary for banks to partner confidently with other market participants and meet the credit needs of their customers.”

But the states argue it allows lenders to bypass their laws that cap high interest rates by originating loans in less-strict states and then moving them elsewhere.

FinTech giant PayPal has won a lawsuit against the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) pertaining to rules regarding prepaid cards and digital wallets, Westlaw Today reported.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C. invalidated part of the CFPB’s mandate, essentially agreeing with PayPal that the agency went beyond its jurisdiction. PayPal filed the suit in December 2019 under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), contesting a 2019 rule regulating prepaid cards and electronic wallets.

Leon wrote that the CFPB didn’t have rule-making authority under the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and therefore couldn’t direct how fees are disclosed for e-wallets and prepaid cards.

Consumer complaints to federal and state agencies exploded this year, fueled by a global crisis that financially stressed millions of Americans and disrupted thousands of businesses’ normal operations.

Now state legislators and consumer advocates across the country are pushing for permanent protections to address the gaps in consumer law exposed by the pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis has put Americans at greater risk of defaulting on loans or falling behind on rent. State consumer protection offices and attorneys general have faced a deluge of reports about price-gouging, fake COVID-19 cures and online payment scams. The Federal Trade Commission has logged nearly 275,000 complaints from consumers, many of them seeking millions of dollars in refunds for canceled trips and services.

Minority-owned banks impact the lives of many in underserved communities, but they make up only about 3% of U.S. banks

One type of bank plays an outsize role in creating more economic opportunity for people of color.

From a Black leadership perspective, a bank is more than “a place where someone can drop off a deposit or get a loan,” says Kevin Cohee, CEO and chairman of OneUnited Bank, one of the biggest Black-owned banks in the U.S. “That’s just the beginning.”

OneUnited Bank’s first loan in the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, “was to a single mother of seven who drove for Uber,” UBER, +4.48% Cohee says.

Bank Account Validation (BAV), a comprehensive suite of instant and near real-time data services, assists financial institutions with identity validation, fraud detection, compliance and risk. The suite offers the ability to establish account ownership, current balance, status and the funds availability of a consumers’ bank account. Financial institutions use the BAV suite in application, underwriting and ongoing customer management, to improve their payment processing KPI’s and ensure regulatory compliance.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) issued a compliance assistance sandbox (CAS) approval order to Synchrony regarding their proposal to develop a “dual-feature credit card.” The card is designed for consumers with a limited or damaged credit history as a tool that can be used to establish or reestablish a favorable credit history. Synchrony intends to offer a lower rate on secured use with the opportunity for eligible accountholders to graduate to unsecured use after 12 months. The terms of both secured use and unsecured use will be disclosed at the opening of the dual-feature credit card account. The terms will then be redisclosed with the opportunity to opt-in to unsecured use.

Issued under the CAS Policy from last year, a CAS approval offers an entity confronting regulatory uncertainty a “safe harbor” from liability under specified legal provisions. Entities are offered safe harbor for specified conduct that the Bureau finds compliant with those legal provisions, subject to good faith compliance with the terms of the approval. The CAS Policy implements the existing safe harbor approval mechanisms provided under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, or—as in this case—the Truth in Lending Act. The duration of the approval in this case is three years.

A recent report by The Ascent took a closer look at average household debt in 2020. The wide-ranging study investigated all kinds of consumer debt, from mortgages to auto loans and credit cards. It also examined personal loan debt. And what the study found was surprising.

Doubling up

According to TransUnion's September 2020 Monthly Industry Snapshot, the average unsecured personal loan debt was $5,538. However, TransUnion also found that many consumers have more than one unsecured personal loan.

A sign of trouble?

According to the latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker, 45 percent of all loans closed by millennial borrowers in November were refinances. That is up three percentage points from the month prior.

The average interest rates on 30-year loans dipped for the eighth consecutive month in November down to 2.97 percent. The report says the dip in interest rates spurred the increased refinancing activity.

“With interest rates reaching historic lows, millennials have refinanced to take advantage of a significant savings opportunity they will see play out over the long-term,” ICE Mortgage Technology President Joe Tyrrell said.

The tracker splits millennials into two groups: 21-29 and 30-40. For older millennials, refinance share reached 52 percent in November, more than double the refinance share of younger millennials at 24 percent.