Borrower | featured news

Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren will help set up a new watchdog agency policing the financial marketplace on behalf of borrowers and save ...

A dubious distinction was reached during the first three months of 2010: More than 10% of all borrowers are now behind on their mortgage payments.

Last month a study from the credit reporting agency Experian and consulting outfit Oliver Wyman estimated that close to a fifth of troubled mortgages involved borrowers who were "strategically" defaulting--walking away from mortgages they could pay but decided not to because they owed more than their houses were worth. Self-assigned guardians of financial ethics see the willingness of borrowers to abandon their mortgage debts as a sign of the "erosion of social and moral standards." The aim of these critics is to shame debtors into sticking with their mortgages.

Jump comes despite extensive federal program aimed at helping borrowers stay in their homes.