Hannah Lang

A lower court “erred” when it sided with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s investors, the Justice Department said in its petition to the high court.

The government has used the law to bring fraud claims against Federal Housing Administration lenders, but the new steps respond to criticism that minor offenders were also getting punished.

The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac discussed steps the companies have already taken to limit their risk, as well as efforts to prevent housing market “overlap” with the FHA.

Concerns over banks’ level of preparation have led to worries about disruptions in the lending market, and some financial institutions warn that a new interest rate benchmark could cause lenders to pull back on credit.

The Government Accountability Office determined that three Obama-era letters from the central bank related to large-bank supervision should have been submitted for congressional review.

At a House hearing covering a whole host of housing finance reform topics, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator said "if the circumstances" call for eliminating investors, "we will."

Regulators have long warned the credit bureaus about deceptive marketing that causes consumers to sign up unwittingly for paid monitoring services. But the practice has persisted, according to complaint data.

The two agencies requested comment on the scorecard regulators use to assess a bank's overall health as some question whether ratings are consistently applied.

The four prudential agencies, which will enforce the new credit loss methodology developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, said they want to promote consistency.

The former House Financial Services Committee chairman follows other notable former officials who went to the think tank after government careers.