Kate Berry

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has not named a permanent deputy director since July. Given the contentious political battle over Richard Cordray's recess appointment and ultimate confirmation by the Senate in 2013, some former officials say it may wait until after the election to make a choice. Here's why.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday hit Citibank with $8 million in fines and restitution for allegedly selling credit card debt at inflated rates and failing to send consumer payments to debt buyers. Two debt collection firms also were ordered to pay civil penalties for altering the dates and amounts of debt owned by consumers.

Bank of America launches a 3% down payment home loan in partnership with Freddie Mac, but the bank won’t retain any risk if the loans default. That’s because it will immediately will sell the loans and servicing rights to Self-Help Federal Credit Union.

Bank of America will launch a 3% down payment home loan in partnership with Freddie Mac, but will not retain any risk if the loans default. That’s because B of A will immediately will sell the loans and servicing rights to Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a Durham, N.C., community development lender.

The decision in Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage Corp. has the potential to radically increase the number of lawsuits brought by borrowers, particularly on loans that were pooled into securitized trusts.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Watt stopped short of calling for Treasury to recapitalize the government-sponsored enterprises, but said "something needs to be done" before they run out of capital.

Lenders are still holding on to scores of delinquent mortgages that date to the real estate crash, but a surge in home values across the country is motivating them to move the most troublesome loans off their books more quickly.

Freddie Mac on Thursday reported strong fourth quarter and year-end profits driven by a surge in demand for both home purchase and apartment loans.

Fannie and Freddie have been selling pools of delinquent mortgages at auction to the highest bidders. Community groups say the Federal Housing Finance Agency should be giving preferential treatment to nonprofits and community development financial institutions.

Bank of America says it has found a growth opportunity courting European companies with U.S. subsidiaries as beleaguered European banks retrench.

Many institutional investors are refusing to purchase mortgages loans until they get assurance from the CFPB that they won't have to pay for others' mistakes. Their pullback could further the slow the issuance of private-label mortgage bonds this year, a huge concern at a time when the majority of home loans are insured by Fannie, Freddie and the FHA.

Wells Fargo's tentative agreement to pay $1.2 billion to resolve claims by the Justice Department that it made shoddy FHA loans is bad news for other banks that are the targets of similar probes.

It's easier than ever for consumers to take out personal loans to pay down high-cost debt or fund big-ticket purchases, and two new studies show that they are taking full advantage of their options.

Bank of New York Mellon, Northern Trust and State Street have all pledged to cut costs as challenging global equity markets, low interest rates, a strengthening U.S dollar and heightened regulatory expectations continue to crimp revenue and profit margins.

It is too early in the Providence, R.I., bank's turnaround plan to buy another bank, CEO Bruce Van Saun says. Instead, he would rather invest in acquiring commercial, mortgage and other loan officers who can feed revenue while he tries to make the bank more efficient.

Ocwen Financial Corp. will pay $2 million to settle charges that it misstated its financial results in valuing complex mortgage assets, said the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The San Francisco bank's cross-selling ratio has begun to sputter, raising questions about whether its aggressive sales approach is starting to chase off too many customers. The problem is more than Wells Fargo's, too, since so many banks have sought to imitate its strategy for selling each customer multiple products.

Unfavorable equity markets and lower transaction volumes led Northern Trust Corp. to report a 2% drop in fourth-quarter profit.

B of A executives capped a challenging year by reporting strong consumer and global lending as well as other upbeat fundamentals, but like a lot of their banking peers spent most of their earnings presentation fighting off gloomy questions about the future.

Executives of Wells Fargo, especially CEO John Stumpf, have repeatedly insisted that the economy (and their bank) will be fine despite the collapse in oil prices. But now they are acknowledging efforts to think about what happens if they are wrong.