Consumer debt in America has been steadily rising since 2012 and is slated to reach a new high of US$4 trillion by the end of 2018, according to creditandcollectionnews.com. The figure cited came from loan comparison site LendingTree, which analysed Federal Reserve data on non-mortgage debts. According to these reports, Americans now owe 26 per cent of their annual income to non-mortgage debt, up from 22 per cent in 2010. Credit card and auto loan debt are climbing more than seven per cent per year, while housing debt is increasing by a little more than two per cent each year. Consumer credit has been increasing by five to six per cent for the last two years. The rise of online shopping and the ease of obtaining credit has helped fuel the rise in consumer debt. Hong Kong's monetary authority is moving to issue its first batch of virtual bank licenses as soon as the end of this year in a push to tap into smart banking and fintech expansion, reports caixin.com. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the special administrative region's de facto central bank, said on Wednesday it would accept applications for online-only banks until 31 August. So far more than 50 companies from around the world have expressed interest in applying, according to caixin.com. Chinese debt collectors are using AI to try and haul in an estimated US$200 billion debt bubble created by the country's peer-to-peer lending industry, reports the FT. This has incentivised a number of start-ups looking to move into the collection market, including Ziyitong, which uses AI to collect delinquent loans for 600 debt collection agencies and more than 200 lenders. It scrapes the internet for intel on debtors and their friends, then contacts them by phone using a dialogue robot. The conversation is recorded and analysed by an algorithm which Ziyitong claims can determine what "phrasing" will be most likely to pressure the debtor into repayment. The system also calls their friends to ask them to urge the debtor to repay the loan. The UK government has cut its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland from 70.1 per cent to 62.4 per cent after completing its first sale of RBS shares in three years. It raised £2.5 billion with the sale, representing a loss of £2.1 billion for taxpayers compared with the amount it paid for the shares when it bailed out the lender in 2008. Chancellor Philip Hammond said the government "should not be in the business of owning banks", adding that the proceeds would be used to reduce national debt.