Kate Berry

New regulatory and investor compliance requirements have put a renewed emphasis on quality control measures. But lenders are discovering the additional costs of these efforts are outweighed by the savings from originating fewer defective loans.

The Federal Housing Administration wants lenders to make fewer mistakes when writing mortgages for the government insurance program. The agency also wants to serve more borrowers with low credit scores. Getting both may be tricky.

A conservative housing critic and liberal consumer advocate have created a 15-year home loan for low-income borrowers to build more equity.

Banks with large mortgage operations are struggling with lower profit margins, detrimental fair-value accounting rules and new regulations that add cost. The market is discounting their stocks as a result, but many of these banks say the blanket assessment is unfair.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded two servicer ratings for Ocwen Loan Servicing, reflecting additional scrutiny by regulators and concerns about the nonbank mortgage servicer's ability to ensure timely payments to bondholders.

Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer took issue with a government watchdog report that criticized both his agency and the government-sponsored enterprises for failing to catch the massive fraud at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

Bank of America has lost more than $60 billion on its acquisition of Countrywide, including the cost of last week's big settlement with the Justice Department. But its issues are hardly over. The pain will continue for years as it has hundreds of thousands of delinquent, unsellable mortgage loans to work through.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae all overlooked warning signs about Taylor, Bean & Whitaker that make them partly to blame for the mortgage lender's multibillion fraud scheme, according to a government watchdog report.

Brian Moynihan has been in charge of Bank of America for nearly five years, and he has spent most of that time in lawyer mode, overseeing settlements worth $48 billion. He is generally praised for taking the bank to this point, but now comes the hard part: getting B of A to grow again.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency banned banks and mortgage servicers from accepting commissions on force-placed insurance policies issued by affiliated companies. At least one mortgage servicer, Ocwen Financial, has found a way around the ban.

PHH is appealing one of the largest judgments ever awarded in a mortgage case. The dispute encapsulates many of the problems that have plagued the servicing industry in recent years.

Though some borrowers will suffer from payment shock when home equity lines reach their end-of-draw-period after 10 years, the risks are isolated. Fewer than 20% of home equity lines have an elevated risk of default in the next few years, TransUnion found.

It sounds liked a great business formula: home loans soared at several megabanks last quarter after they spent months cutting thousands of jobs to save costs. But executives remain concerned about profit potential because market shifts and new regulations are making mortgage lending more expensive.

PHH Corp. has put its president and CEO in charge of its mortgage subsidiary, the unit's fourth top executive in two years.

Nonbank mortgage lenders are chafing at a report from a government watchdog claiming they are less regulated than large banks and pose increased risks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Independent mortgage lenders are concerned that regulators will use the report as an excuse to raise minimum net worth requirements for smaller lenders.

In another reshuffling of its mortgage ranks, Bank of America has promoted D. Steve Boland, who joined the company through the 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial, to head residential lending.

Nonbank mortgage lenders pose greater risks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they have limited government oversight and generally weaker finances than banks, according to a government watchdog report.

Bank of America executives downplayed expectations about commercial lending and warned about the dangers of lowering prices to build loan portfolios, while their counterparts at U.S. Bancorp reveled in double-digit growth in the category and pledged to stay aggressive.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago is launching a pilot program soon to buy home loans and issue Ginnie Mae securities. The program could allow community banks and credit unions to stay in the mortgage business.