A couple notes: lower credit scores mean higher rates. If a loan applicant is just as low a real risk as they were last month, but now has a social-signal-adju

A couple notes: lower credit scores mean higher rates. If a loan applicant is just as low a real risk as they were last month, but now has a social-signal-adjusted credit score that is lower and thus demands a higher interest rate, the bank will make more money. Bad signals applied uniformly across the industry can be massively profitable. Second, lowered risk hasn't had much impact on rates. Increased risk, as we saw banks take on during the bubble, led to very low mortgage rates. Whereas, absent federal programs to encourage refinancing, current rates are often higher than five years ago, for people of the same credit risk. Another example of this would be the bankruptcy "reform" laws that made it very hard to discharge credit card debts. These have dramatically lowered real risk for US banks, but no corresponding drop in credit card rates has been seen. Again, contrary to what simple economics would predict, rates are often higher than they were before the reform for the same people.