consumer credit

The next move of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve will be an attempt to boost consumer credit by pumping $25 billion to $100 billion into a new program to be announced later today.

The money will come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Wal-Mart announced plans to invest more than a billion dollars to open up to 90 new stores in Brazil. That country has become Latin America's fastest growing market, in part because of rising incomes and cheaper consumer credit.

Wal-Mart has been in Brazil for more than a decade, and already has 318 stores there.

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Citigroup delivered another devastating quarterly loss Friday, this time losing more than $5 billion due to troubling results in its fixed-income business and higher consumer credit costs.

Finally, some good news about credit: Fair Isaac, the company that calculates consumer credit ratings for lenders, is rolling out a new formula that promises to favor responsible credit holders.

Your FICO score could benefit.