Kate Berry

The New Jersey bank offers cheap mortgage refis, but their fine print means that some customers end up paying additional interest or taxes — and complaining about the extra costs.

As head of the Mortgage Bankers Association, David H. Stevens spent the last year warning that excessive and ill-considered regulation could drag down the mortgage market. As the new head of SunTrust Mortgage, he'll have to face that regulation head-on.

Newly initiated foreclosures by the Federal Housing Administration jumped 247% in April from a year earlier, while the overall number of foreclosure starts fell 3.1% in the same period.

The Mortgage Bankers Association raised its 2012 forecast for residential originations on Thursday, citing low interest rates that have sparked a massive increase in refinance activity.

Banks are benefitting from a surge in second-quarter loan growth, driven almost exclusively by a jump in home mortgage lending.

A Los Angeles law firm offers to pay brokers for convincing homeowners to pay $5,000 "referral" fees and sue banks. Critics raise legal and regulatory questions.

Bank of America will buy back $330 million of home mortgages from Freddie Mac because the bank did not get full appraisals on some properties, raising concerns that some newly originated loans are not meeting underwriting guidelines.

Banks are doing what they can to avoid depressing home prices, by focusing on reducing foreclosures rather than flooding the market with their backlog of properties.

Inspired by rock bank REO Speedwagon, the North Carolina Bankers Association has created a website where banks – and only banks – can market real estate-owned properties directly to consumers.

Donald H. Layton, formerly head of E-Trade, seeks to streamline operations at Freddie, cites strain of operating under conservatorship and describes his motivation as public service.

Angry shareholders and protesters pelted CEO Brian Moynihan with insults and complained about everything from Countrywide to coal ash. Drama aside, management prevailed in shareholder votes on executive pay and other matters.

B of A's annual meeting drew hundreds of protesters, and shareholders complained to CEO Brian Moynihan about the company’s foreclosure practices.

A coalition of activist groups is planning a massive demonstration of as many as 1,000 participants at Bank of America's annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday.

"We've been pretty aggressive" marketing the revamped refi program to customers, says a Fifth Third mortgage executive. Lenders are making so much money on secondary market sales they're practically "stealing it."

Wells Fargo plans to give its underwriters more control in approving mortgages that it retains in its own portfolio, as the bank tries to add high-quality assets to its balance sheet.

A coalition of 23 banking industry trade groups urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday to adopt a safe harbor protection from lawsuits for lenders that originate qualified mortgages when the bureau issues a final rule this year.

A surge in mortgage lending drove strong profits for banks of all sizes in the first quarter, with some banks attributing the improvement to new regulations.

Goldman Sachs shareholders will decide next month whether to reelect board member James A. Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae, who is facing vocal opposition from a large mutual fund investor.

Raj Date, the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Friday that the agency wants to avoid creating "disincentives" for mortgage lenders and banks as part of the qualified mortgage rule.

The acting head of the FHFA said Thursday he is “deeply concerned” about underwater borrowers, but that forbearance plans and short sales already serve as forms of principal reduction.