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.

Executives sent a letter to the federal banking regulators last month expressing concern that an alternative to the London interbank offered rate could limit credit availability.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors has proposed creating model payments legislation that states could adopt to improve the state-by-state licensing process.

The Federal Housing Administration chief has already been serving as the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Allowing the mortgage giants to retain profits resolves a short-term capital shortfall, but how much capital they would need after exiting conservatorship is still the bigger question.

The central bank will consider rules to create a tiered structure for supervising banks with over $100 billion of assets and to ease resolution plan requirements.

The move to alter the government's preferred stock purchase agreements is the first major one under FHFA Director Mark Calabria's tenure to wind down the conservatorship of the government-sponsored enterprises.

Simone Grimes had alleged former FHFA Director Mel Watt made inappropriate advances toward her and she was paid less than the man who had previously held her position.

The three federal banking agencies moved to raise the threshold for residential transactions that require an appraisal from $250,000 to $400,000.

The Fed’s top regulatory official said how agencies adjust their supervisory approach may prove just as important as their rulemaking efforts.

The shareholders' claims against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator mirror arguments in cases challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.