Lending and Credit

(see also Credit Scoring, and Loan Workout )

America's Business Funding Directory: This is a very popular site, which provides a search routine to help borrowers find lenders who specialize in the type of loan they require. The search engine at the site is organized by the following types of loans: venture capital; commercial; real estate; equipment; government; and investment. http://www.businessfinance.com/

American Collectors Association: The site of a professional trade association for collectors. http://www.acainternational.org/ It provides excellent information on collection practices, the role of the professional collector, and the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act).

Better Business Bureau: The site contains information about credit agencies, credit reports, confidentiality, and disputing credit reports. http://www.bbb.org

Creditworthy: A very comprehensive site for business credit information. One of the most interesting features is the information on financial statements and ratios. There are good education features. http://www.creditworthy.com

Equifax: The site of one of the major credit reporting agencies. The site provides descriptions of company products and a useful consumer feature that explains the use of credit reports. http://www.equifax.com

Experian: This site provides very valuable credit information on credit reports and scoring. U.S. services are shown at http://www.experian.com/consumer/index.html Personal credit report information is found at http://www.experian.com/credit_report_basics/your_credit_report.html Another section answers questions on: "What is a credit report?," "What information is in a credit report?," "How long does information stay in a credit report?," and "How are credit reports used?" http://www.experian.com/consumer/credit_report_faqs.html

Fair Isaac & Co.: The site of the world’s largest credit and mortgage scoring firm. http://www.fairisaac.com/fairisaac

Fair, Issac and Company (How Lenders See You): This site has most of what you want to know about credit reports. http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/CreditReports.aspx

Federal Trade Commission (How to Dispute a Credit Report): This page provides a complete explanation of the process. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/crdtdis.htm#Sample%20Dispute%20Letter

Federal Trade Commission (Knee Deep in Credit): This site has a useful article covering from which some of the above material was taken. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/kneedeep.htm

Fitch Investment Service: This site of the bond-rating agency provides current information on recent bond ratings by Fitch. http://www.fitchinv.com

J.P. Morgan & Co. Risk Management: This site provides summaries of a variety of Morgan economic publications and data sources. The research Web site is available to clients only. http://www.jpmorgan.com

RiskMetrics™ is a methodology to estimate market risk based on the Value-at-Risk approach. RiskMetrics™ comprises a set of consistently calculated volatilities and correlation forecasts for use as inputs to estimate market risks. An expanded version includes new markets and commodities. It covers government bonds, money markets and swaps, foreign exchange and equity indices (where applicable) for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European currency units, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. http://www.riskmetrics.com

CreditManager™ is designed to fulfill two important tasks: to generate credit risk information for control and reporting purposes, and to provide flexible tools to assist risk takers and decision makers. Users must first provide details of their exposures and obligors. CreditManager™ then uses credit risk data coming from CreditMetrics™, or other sources, to analyze the risk due to credit events over a one-year horizon. http://www.riskmetrics.com/cmgr.html

Moody’s Investors Service: The site of a major security credit rating organization. There is some good basic information and current credit information as well as an excellent economic update. http://www.moodys.com/cust/default.asp

National Association of Credit Management: A professional credit management professional organization providing education, certification, research and meeting information. This site provides articles and news on the topics of business credit, global credit, loss prevention, credit research, and education. http://www.nacm.org

National Foundation of Credit Counseling: This organization of credit counselors also has a useful consumer site. http://www.nfcc.org/ The organization's consumer site provide information on credit counseling and debt management. http://www.debtadvice.org/

Northern California Credit Service: This company issued credit reports. The site provides limited but useful information on credit scores. http://www.nccredit.com/

Switchboard: A search site for personal and business phone numbers, toll free numbers, Web site addresses, and e-mail addresses. http://www.switchboard.com

Tenant Screening Credit (TSCI): A site providing credit information for real estate owners on tenant evictions and credit. http://www.tsci.com/

Trans Union: The site of a major provider of credit report and credit scoring information. http://www.transunion.com/index.jsp