Kate Berry

Housing finance reform in Congress is stalled, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (often under pressure from their regulator) are forming partnerships, developing new products and finding ways to share risk with the private sector to correct flaws in the housing system.

Mortgage servicers have gotten a rare reprieve from the Federal Housing Administration.

Mortgage servicers have gotten a rare reprieve from the Federal Housing Administration.

Next year Fannie will require that mortgage lenders use so-called trended credit data for all mortgage borrowers, a move it says could broaden access to credit.

Next year Fannie will require that mortgage lenders use so-called trended credit data for all mortgage borrowers, a move it says could broaden access to credit.

Results from the largest U.S. bank, and the first major player to report on its latest quarter, showed widespread revenue strains and only added to questions about the industry's growth prospects in the near future.

A California company called NEFT wants to provide the online meeting place where debt-laden borrowers get together with lenders and credit bureaus to negotiate repayment plans. Backed by some prominent investors, NEFT says it offers carrots to get all the parties to participate.

It's hard to decide which is more surprising: that the largest U.S. bank has almost abandoned the business of making home loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, that lots of big banks could be right behind it, or that the FHA might not even need to care.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan gets to keep his chairman's title but still faces a major capital plan deadline in just a week and then will have to sort through the fallout from what has been a challenging third quarter for the entire industry.

Bank of America shareholders voted Tuesday to allow Brian Moynihan to keep his dual titles of chairman and chief executive, with 63% of votes cast in favor of Moynihan.

Wells Fargo has seven women on its 16-member board, a 44% ratio that is twice that of the average top 25 bank. It got there, in large part, by looking beyond C-suites for qualified directors.

Competitors have been spreading rumors that JPMorgan Chase is quitting the field, the bank's CEO said in a wide-ranging question-and-answer session that touched on Bitcoin, China, and his retirement plans.

Brian Moynihan, Bank of America's chairman and CEO, told investors Thursday that revenue from fixed-income and equity markets should decline by 5% to 6% in the third quarter compared with a year ago. The Charlotte, N.C., bank will continue to have a higher efficiency ratio relative to its peers because of the high costs of paying financial advisers.

Wells Fargo is raising minimum credit score requirements on Federal Housing Administration loans, part of the ongoing jockeying by large banks to limit lawsuits by the Justice Department for defective FHA loans.

The third quarter ends in two weeks, and top executives at Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and two regional banks are raising concerns about cost pressures, impediments to revenue growth and heightened lending risks.

Iron Mountain, the leading provider of document storage, is buying its main rival. If the merged company tried to raise prices, it might be the final straw that motivates banks to shift data storage to the cloud.

Wells Fargo has named Michael DeVito head of mortgage production, making him responsible for its retail and correspondent lending divisions.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data set to be released in the next few weeks will offer new proof that mortgage lending activity was stronger than expected last year. That fresh data, the likely delay in Fed action on rates and other factors could prompt higher volume estimates for 2015.

The market correction and likely longer timeline for a Fed rate rise have sent some overly optimistic investors to the door, and now prices are closer in line with the fundamentals. That's setting the stage for a bounceback in some of the biggest banks' stocks and may ease pressure on them coming into third-quarter earnings season.

Walter Investment Management has received approval from Freddie Mac to hold the mortgage servicing rights on $3.3 billion in residential mortgage loans.