Kate Berry has covered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for American Banker since 2016. She joined the publication in 2006 covering mortgage lending and the financial crisis. Berry also has covered big banks including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. She has won five awards from the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, and has worked at several news organizations including the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Associated Press. Berry began her career as a clerk at the New York Times.
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Kal Raman has resigned as president and chief executive of Xome, the digital platform of the nonbank mortgage servicer Nationstar Mortgage Holdings.
By Kate BerryDecember 1 -
Anticipation of rising interest rates has stirred more talk among mortgage lenders about the need to originate loans to borrowers with low credit scores. Mortgage lenders like Angel Oak Home Loans in Atlanta argue there is a distinction between the subprime products being pitched today and the infamous stated-income loans of yore.
By Kate BerryNovember 30 -
Bryan Sullivan, the CFO at LoanDepot, talks about its growth prospects without fuel from an initial public offering, how getting consumers to opt for home equity lines of credit is tough, and why he considers the nonbank a disruptor.
By Kate BerryNovember 24 -
Prospect Mortgage, a Sherman Oaks, Calif., nonbank lender, has agreed to pay $10.1 million in borrower restitution and penalties for violating federal and state laws, California's Department of Business Oversight said Thursday.
By Kate BerryNovember 19 -
Dave McKay, the president and CEO of Royal Bank of Canada, has spent much of his time as head of the second-largest Canadian bank plotting the acquisition of the coveted $36 billion-asset City National in Los Angeles. Now he has to execute on a strategy of cross-selling products to affluent customers of both banks while expanding geographically.
By Kate BerryNovember 5 -
Luther Burbank Savings, in Santa Rosa, Calif., has established three home loan programs aimed at helping low- and moderate-income borrowers afford to buy homes in nine California counties.
By Kate BerryNovember 4 -
Freddie Mac Chief Executive Donald Layton insisted Tuesday that the government-sponsored enterprise showed "very strong fundamentals" in the third quarter, despite reporting a $501 million loss due to an accounting mismatch with its use of derivatives.
By Kate BerryNovember 3 -
Freddie Mac posted a third quarter loss of $501 million, its first quarterly loss in four years, but the government-sponsored enterprise will not request a draw from the U.S. Treasury.
By Kate BerryNovember 3 -
The government-sponsored enterprise is working to rebuild partnerships with church organizations and housing financing agencies as part of a broader effort to make owning a home affordable for low- and moderate-income families.
By Kate BerryNovember 2 -
Bank of America has agreed to pay $335 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it misled shareholders about risky mortgages and its dependence on the electronic mortgage registry known as MERS.
By Kate BerryNovember 2 -
City National in Los Angeles reported a 3% increase in third-quarter profit, driven by double-digit loan growth.
By Kate BerryOctober 22 -
Mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial failed four servicing tests in the second half of 2014. Joseph A. Smith Jr., the monitor of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, said the Atlanta servicer was beginning to show progress in complying with terms of the 2012 agreement.
By Kate BerryOctober 22 -
The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned software vendors that they face new scrutiny from regulators for causing mortgage lenders to miss the TRID-compliance deadline. He was vague about how far the CFPB might go, but many in the industry are prone to fear the worst.
By Kate Berry and Austin KilgoreOctober 21 -
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.
By Kate BerryOctober 20 -
Mortgage servicers have gotten a rare reprieve from the Federal Housing Administration.
By Kate BerryOctober 20 -
Mortgage servicers have gotten a rare reprieve from the Federal Housing Administration.
By Kate BerryOctober 20 -
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.
By Kate BerryOctober 19 -
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.
By Kate BerryOctober 19 -
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.
By Kate BerryOctober 13 -
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.
By Kate BerryOctober 5


