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Today’s top news headlines feature the results of a new survey that shows Americans are satisfied overall with their standard of living and reasons low-income families rely on alternative banking services. Plus, find out why many job applicants disapprove of group interviews.

Group Interviews Unattractive To Job Applicants Fortune Many companies are setting up group interviews for positions that involve team-oriented work, a trend that has not been well received by job applicants. Hiring managers say the practice allows them to save time and determine which applicants are well-suited to work in groups under high levels of stress. H

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Banks repossessed $304 billion worth of homes in 2010, and they’re just getting started. Equifax, a national credit bureau, sees no end in sight to a housing recession that’s already dragged on for more than four years, according to the company’s latest housing study.

“Until these foreclosures are processed, the mortgage market will continue to impact economic growth,” Craig Crabtree, senior VP of Equifax Mortgage Services, said in a press release.

Repossessions just continue to rise. Banks repossessed mortgages worth $126.7 billion in 2006 and 2007 combined, Equifax reported. Soon afte

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Although Bank of America might be struggling to make modifications on its mortgages to ease the problems for homeowners, cardholders can at least take some comfort in this piece of good news. The bank has got the top scores in the run up to the best efforts by card issuers to combat identity fraud.

There were around 23 card issuers that were analyzed and Bank of America Corp was the top scorer in 3 categories that is, detection, prevention, and resolution. This is the fifth straight year that Bank of America has topped the charts according to a study conducted by Javelin Strategy and Research’s 7-year round up.

Bank of America had totaled a score of 87 points on a 100-point scale and managed to beat its own record of 81 points in 2009. D

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Americans could use a bit more discipline when it comes to saving money for their long-term goals, especially with all the distractions that arise day to day.About three out of four Americans say that the pace of society today makes it harder for them to stay focused on their long-term financial goals, according to a study by Northwestern Mutual.

Just achieving financial security is becoming more of a challenge, much less saving for retirement. Yet financial matters are the top areas in life where Americans do set goals.

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the mortgage backing giants controlled by the federal government – have repeatedly increased lending standards for financial institutions in an attempt to stem losses from defaulted and foreclosed-upon properties. The problem is that this has served to stymie federal attempts to kickstart a housing industry that has flagged since the recession ended, even as demand has reached record highs, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

“The government is working at cross-purposes,” Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at Washington-based libertarian policy-research center the Cato Institute, told the news agency. “There’

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Today on Talk Credit Radio: Friday, July 8, 2011

Across the country, many older Americans are struggling with low rates of return on traditional savings accounts and CDs that make it difficult to pay their bills without draining their retirement savings. For some, an annuity would make it possible to turn those savings into a lifetime income stream. Annuities were even recommended in a report by the Obama administration’s Middle Class Task Force. They are not without controversy, though. H

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