Jeff Horwitz

A federal judge has granted approval for a Florida force-placed insurance class action to proceed against Wells Fargo and QBE Insurance. Evidence already uncovered in the case poses added peril to the defendants and other banks.

A two-year inquiry into tri-party repurchase agreements has not figured out how to fully eliminate systemic risk from this arcane market.

More than a day after the announcement of a mammoth national mortgage servicing settlement, the actual terms of the deal still aren't public. That's because a fully authorized, legally binding deal has not been inked yet.

In addition to the national mortgage servicing settlement, Nevada has reached a side deal with Bank of America, state Attorney General Catherine Masto announced late Thursday.

Banks have faced onslaughts of litigation for several years over their credit card payment protection plans. But so far legal efforts to challenge or change the business have ended in dismissals or relatively small settlements.

Banks have been accused of ripping off consumers for insurance-like credit card products. Now critics who say the payment protection plans are a racket could get a boost from federal regulators.

Bank files preliminary pact over claims that it racked up a half-billion dollars in wrongful overdraft fees every year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is preparing to back away from a controversial plan to overhaul the servicing fees paid on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, after intense, across-the-board industry opposition to the idea.

Christopher Willis, a litigation partner at Ballard Spahr LLP who defends banks in consumer finance cases, insists that prevention can still head off most problems. Following are pointers for banks that were pieced together from a discussion with Willis about his firm's watchlist for avoiding documentation troubles.

Banks, collections agencies face a rising tide of challenges that echo the mortgage market's documentation scandal.

The financial industry's troubles with a controversial type of insurance coverage appear to be spreading to new areas as New York State's Department of Financial Services issues dozens of subpoenas.

Bank of the West is on the brink of settling a lawsuit targeting its overdraft fee practices, making it the tenth bank to buy its way out of a massive Florida class action case.

B of A showed improvement in the fourth quarter, but it is counting on its ability to expand through earnings as well as keep legal and repurchase costs in check. That is a tall order.

A New York probe has brought national attention to banks' alleged self-dealing in the sale of force-placed insurance. But the investigation is just one of many looming challenges to the practice.

Cost cuts "certainly won't be the primary driver for earnings in the future," says CFO Timothy Sloan. CEO John Stumpf says Wells Fargo is "kicking lots of tires" for potential acquisitions.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has quietly ceased filing lawsuits to collect consumer debts around the nation, dismissing in-house attorneys and virtually shutting down a collections machine that as recently as nine months ago was racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in monthly judgments.

PHH, the nation's largest private mortgage company, has been notified by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it is the subject of an investigation into potentially improper reinsurance payments.

There’s a difference between projecting confidence and ignoring risk. In their public handicapping of mortgage litigation, bank executives have done the latter.

The California attorney general's lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac raises questions about preemption and the FHFA's authority, but seems unlikely to produce revelations about foreclosures.

The SEC is unlikely to see much financial gain, or praise, from suing former Fannie and Freddie bosses. Instead, its suits' biggest effect might be in rendering the defendants unemployable.