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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City National Bank in Los Angeles said Thursday that its second-quarter profit rose 5% from the same period last year, driven by heavier demand for commercial loans.
July 23 -
The Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday said the housing market recovery has shifted to "a higher gear," and it raised its forecasts for total originations and home purchases for this year and 2016.
July 22 -
Bankers were pleased with the dramatic leap in home lending last quarter, but they cautioned that volume will slow in the second half as rate increases curb refinancings, nonbanks provide stiffer competition, servicing costs remain high and underwriting standards change.
July 22 -
Regulators gave conditional approval for CIT Group's deal to buy OneWest Bank, paving the way for an institution that would be deemed systemically important, with $70 billion in combined assets.
July 21 -
M&T, PNC, SunTrust and other regionals reported strong fee growth thanks to inroads they have made in investment banking, wealth management and other areas. It couldn't have come at a better time for them.
July 17 -
The combination of swelling deposits and weak loan growth continues to be a tough problem for regional banks. U.S. Bancorp's Richard Davis thinks higher loan growth is just around the corner to solve the problem, but PNC's Bill Demchak fears deposits could flee faster than lending will ramp up.
July 15 -
Wells Fargo executives received a host of questions Tuesday about the effect of rising interest rates on its deposits and other risk factors, but they said they cannot let uncertainty restrain their short-term actions and think some predictions about rates especially on Treasuries may be wrong.
July 14 -
Struggling to win business in the age of QM, Impac Mortgage has relaxed underwriting requirements in hopes of attracting borrowers many other lenders won't touch.
July 13 -
The Greek debt crisis and China's stock-market crash may put downward pressure on interest rates and delay the Fed's interest rate hike, and they are adding uncertainty at a time when lenders thought recovery would be taking hold.
July 7 -
After it all but stopped making real estate and development loans following the housing crash, Farmers & Merchants Bank has increased its real estate loans by more than 61% over the last two years. It's a figure that's likely to keep rising as California's real estate market heats up and the $5.6 billion-asset bank continues to add commercial real estate, construction and mortgage lending specialists to keep pace.
July 1 -
A Los Angeles-based community group has dropped its objection to the proposed sale of City National Bank to Royal Bank of Canada and now says the deal should be expedited.
June 24 -
Many lenders may not have been ready for the CFPB's new mortgage disclosure rule if it took effect on Aug. 1 as planned. Now a slip-up by the agency itself has given lenders a two-month reprieve.
June 19 -
Pressure from community groups forced Valley National Bancorp to strengthen its commitment to lend in low-and moderate-income neighborhoods in order to win approval for a Florida acquisition. Other banks, too, are now placing CRA efforts front-and-center as they aim to sell deals to the public and their regulators.
June 19 -
Six servicers were cited for a range of infractions, including a failure to respond to requests for loan modifications and not doing enough to prevent foreclosures. Punishment was harsh for Wells Fargo and HSBC, which are banned from acquiring mortgage servicing rights and entering into new servicing contracts.
June 17 -
The mortgage lender Nationstar Mortgage Holdings is pouring a lot of energy into a digital and mobile homebuying platform called Xome. The strategy could attract tech-savvy millennials but carries plenty of risks including whether consumers would be improperly steered to its products.
June 10 -
The Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board said Coester Appraisal Management Group did not violate state law for failing to pay appraisers "customary and reasonable" fees, and that its executive director "misspoke" about a stipulation and order with the AMC.
June 8 -
The Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board has fined an appraisal management company $5,000 for failing to pay "customary and reasonable" fees to appraisers.
June 5 -
Ocwen Financial's shares had fallen nearly 7% Friday afternoon, to under $10 apiece, a day after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services put the company's servicer ratings on CreditWatch negative.
June 5 -
As part of its proposed sale to Royal Bank of Canada, City National has made a big Community Reinvestment Act commitment, which includes targeting small-business loans at the minority- and women-owned suppliers of three power companies.
June 4 -
Banks and mortgage lenders are in the final stretch of preparing to deliver new TILA-Respa Integrated Disclosures to homebuyers starting Aug. 1. But it's not just the change of forms that is causing alarm bells. Fines could be steep, and legal liability could be even higher, for violators, while necessary technological changes are expensive, they say.
June 1
