Kate Berry

Ambiguous language in the 2012 national mortgage settlement has caused widespread confusion about the legality of foreclosing on delinquent borrowers who have filed paperwork on mortgage modifications.

Freddie Mac plans to eliminate a $7,500 annual low-activity fee that has met with a backlash among rural banks that sell a small number of loans each year to the government-sponsored enterprise.

Banks are sitting on hundreds of thousands of vacant homes that are in foreclosure and repossessed properties at a time when housing inventory is at a low point, RealtyTrac said.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan and four state attorneys general vowed to hold banks to the terms of the settlement while saying more institutions were likely to shortly join their ranks.

The big five servicers technically passed the first test of their compliance with the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, but four of them failed to meet at least one requirement and the settlement's monitor received nearly 60,000 complaints.

To keep costs down, insurers are exercising their right under the Affordable Care Act to insist consumers pay their premiums via automatic bank withdrawal. The Department of Health and Human Services is scrambling to make insurers accept plastic.

U.S. Bank's incoming mortgage president Rick Aneshansel argues that purchase volume will not make up for the drop in refinancing, and that some lenders will have little choice but to quit the business or pair up with a competitor.

A sales pitch from Bank of America implies that its refinancing offer is in the borrower's best interest. Never mind that it would raise the customer's interest rate and add 10 years to the overall life of the loan.

The $42 million pact is the first of its kind to resolve complaints that a mortgage servicer treated foreclosed homes differently based on the racial composition of the neighborhood.

The nation's largest home lender is ramping up marketing of a credit card that has helped customers eliminate $50 million of mortgage debt.

Freddie says its new "low-activity" fee will offset the cost of monitoring the loans it buys, but avoiding it could be a challenge for lenders in rural markets.

Community banks and credit unions now have two years to continue originating balloon loans to all customers, a major change from a prior proposal that would have banned such loans except in rural or underserved markets.

Technology has dramatically changed the way people bank, but many banks areresponding by closing and opening branches rather than arming themselves with data that could make existing branches more efficient.

In a sign of renewed pressure on mortgage servicers, a number of big banks have ceased or dramatically slowed the final step in the foreclosure process.

A shareholder at Regions Financial urged shareholders to exercise "caution" in the election of the bank's 14 board members who are up for re-election at the its annual meeting Thursday.

Ally Financial said Tuesday that it has settled all claims with its subprime mortgage unit Residential Capital and between all third parties and ResCap excluding securities claims brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Scott Simon, head of mortgage-backed securities operations at fixed income giant Pacific Investment Management Co., argues on the eve of his retirement that the government-sponsored housing enterprises should continue to play a major role in housing finance.

New York's Attorney General charged Bank of America and Wells Fargo with hundreds of cases of failure to comply with the national mortgage servicing settlement recently. The claims made for lots headlines but may prove a non-starter in court.

The share of all loans that were at least one payment past due or in foreclosure fell to 10.3% in the first quarter, the lowest level in four years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.

A new report from Celent finds that many banks plan to expand their branch networks over the next few years even though all the evidence suggests that foot traffic is declining and that most transactions are now conducted online.