Today’s top news headlines feature new studies that reveal women are likely to face more financial anxiety than men and a growing number of Americans are losing faith in the banking industry. Plus, find out how much most parents pay to meet the rising costs of child care.

Americans No Longer Put Faith In Banks The Huffington Post A new Gallup survey reveals the percentage of Americans who have little to no confidence in the banking industry has reached the highest level on record since the group began gathering data, climbing to 36 percent. Additionally, the number of individuals who hold a great deal of trust in financial institutions has remained steady at 23 percent.

Child Care Costs Continue to Climb 24/7 Wall Street A recent report shows the costs of raising children have increased significantly over the last 50 years. T

Read more…

Experian, Equifax and Trans Union maintain lists of V.I.P.’s like politicians, judges and other influential people who get special help from employees here in the U.S. in fixing mistakes on their credit reports. Everyone else is herded into a largely automated system under which an employee spends about two minutes reading the dispute after which the dispute is categorized using a two or three digit code. The coded dispute is sent to the source of the inaccuracy, which may be a credit card company or debt collector.

A front page story by Tara Siegel Bernard in today’s NY Times contrasts the V.I.P. treatment with the slipshod methods used to handle others’ disputes. The story quotes Ms Chi Chi Wu of the National Consumer Law Center for an important point–when it comes to credit reporting, consumers cannot vote with their feet.

Read more…

It might seem like a statement, but it really isnt, despite the fact that 8 of our last 10 financings have been for U.S.-based companies. As is often the case on a Friday, a deal gets put to bed. Happy to report that we just closed a US$5.5 million venture debt financing for a California-based provider of eCommerce software and services.

Our new portfolio company powers over 100 retail websites, generating billions in annual sales for its clients. Hopefully well be able to name the firm next week. The company’s existing investor base includes five venture capital firms based in the Palo Alto area.

If three makes for a Trifecta, what the handle for five firms in the same venture basin?

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think that right now is a good time to buy a home, despite ongoing concerns about the direction of the economy and their personal financial situation.

In fact, Americans are more favorably disposed toward homebuying than are people in other countries with more optimistic views of their economic situation. That’s according to a new mortgage trends study from Genworth International looking at consumer attitudes in eight countries on four continents.   The survey found that many people in all eight countries – Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States – think it’s a good time to buy a home, owing largely to recent declines in home prices. Americans had a significantly more favorable view than most, with 62 percent saying it’s a good time to buy a home, compared to an average of 42 percent for all eight countries.   More oft Read more…

Govt want to ‘give renewable energy power to the people’ The government has said that it wants to help consumers, communities and businesses to generate renewable energy by giving “power to the people”. Read more…

The total home loan market saw applications decline 5.9 percent in the week ending June 17, as far fewer Americans attempted to obtain refinances for their existing loans, according to the latest weekly statistics from the Mortgage Bankers Association. This was caused largely by a 7.2 percent decline in the number of refinance applications filed, while new purchase applications dropped 2.8 percent. However, the number of purchases was still 4.4 percent higher than it was in the same week last year.

Overall, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.57 percent, up from the 4.51 percent observed in the previous week, the report said. Meanwhile, rates for 15-year fixed-rate loans jumped to 3.7 percent from the previous period’s 3.67 percent. O

Read more…