A leading bank trade group said Americans are making headway in cleaning up their finances, with borrowers missing fewer payments on credit cards and other consumer loans in the first three months of the year — the third straight quarterly decline. Delinquency rates also fell for home equity loans and credit lines in the first quarter, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the American Bankers Association (ABA). It was the first quarter that home equity loan delinquencies had fallen in two years, an encouraging sign, said James Chessen, chief economist for the banking trade group.