Allison Bisbey

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday it has ordered Bridgepoint Education to refund $23.5 million for deceiving students into taking out private student loans that cost more than advertised.

Many lenders are still reluctant to give mortgages to borrowers with less-than-pristine credit, yet such loans are far more likely than prime jumbo loans to be bundled into collateral bonds. Sreeni Prabhu of Angel Oak Capital credits banks' behavior and higher interest rates for that reality.

The first commercial mortgage-backed security to comply with "skin in the game" requirements was extremely well received. Market participants credit the way the large banks sponsoring the deal retained the risk – a strategy unavailable to nonbank lenders.

The Federal Housing Administration is promoting a particular kind of financing for residential energy retrofits that another regulator staunchly opposes. Mortgage lenders and investors have qualms, too, about the impact on their standing in collateral claims.

State student loan authorities sense a business opportunity helping graduates who are gainfully employed lower their payments. Their low-cost funding could put them in competition with banks and marketplace lenders.

The pricing of student loans, and higher-ed degrees themselves, should have more to do with the proven earning power of a university's graduates in the eyes of some innovators. Big data could play a huge role.

The due-diligence firms that vet loans before securitization are erring on the side of caution when assessing the risk to investors of liability from the new consumer mortgage disclosure rules.

Calls to break up big banks could complicate efforts by large institutions to raise sizable cushions of capital that can absorb losses in the event of a failure.

Strong investor demand for two recent securitizations by Navient, the largest servicer of federally guaranteed student loans, suggests that banks may soon have an opportunity to resume unloading such assets.

Moody’s Investors Service, which put three of Citigroup’s securitizations of unsecured consumer loans originated by Prosper Marketplace under review for a downgrade, was not invited to rate the latest offering.