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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Wells Fargo is trying a new twist on long-controversial down-payment assistance programs, which give money to prospective borrowers who otherwise could not afford to buy homes.
March 26 -
The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Wells Fargo & Co. of failing to produce documents relating to an investigation of the bank’s mortgage-backed securities. Wells called the SEC's subpoena enforcement action "inappropriate and unwarranted."
March 23 -
Mortgage bondholders are threatening legal action over the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, which will give the five largest servicers credits for principal writedowns that the bondholders may take.
March 19 -
The terms of the national mortgage settlement overlap to some extent with existing federal consent orders against the largest servicers, which could complicate banks' compliance efforts with both — and the role of the external settlement monitor.
March 16 -
The $25 billion national mortgage settlement essentially allows the five largest servicers to police themselves - which has made many consumer advocates surprisingly happy.
March 15 -
More than a month after federal and state officials announced a massive $25 billion settlement with the five mortgage servicers, the Justice Department on Monday finally released the actual legal document. The document dump provided critical new details about the terms of the agreement.
March 12 -
U.S. Bancorp has created a separate in-house appraisal unit overseen by a senior risk officer, breaking from the way most banks handle appraisals of residential properties.
March 12 -
The $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement is "a symbol, a chance to get everyone to agree to solve this," the CEO tells investors.
March 8 -
The number of foreclosure sales spiked in January, as banks and government agencies started to clear the backlog of properties that have been in the foreclosure process for several years, according to data released Tuesday.
March 6 -
Hundreds of municipalities are passing ordinances that could cost banks and others billions of dollars to register and maintain troubled homes that may never reach foreclosure.
March 5 -
PennyMac founder and former Countrywide president Stanford L. Kurland has taken his share of criticism for helping to start the financial crisis. Now he is singing the praises of the government's latest attempt to fix it.
March 2 -
Regulators have bombarded mortgage servicers with a flurry of new regulations and government programs in the past year, heaping on tasks and costly reviews. Now they're asking to hear the mortgage companies' complaints.
February 27 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received about 2,300 complaints from borrowers about mortgage servicers in December, and that pace has been steady ever since, a senior advisor at the agency said Wednesday.
February 23 -
Banks strategizing about the best ways to unload real-estate owned properties face tough choices on whether to pay for costly repairs, auction off homes or attempt to sell them to investors.
February 23 -
The acting commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration on Wednesday blasted news reports that claim Bank of America Corp. was essentially bailing out the agency's mortgage insurance fund.
February 22 -
Five months after giving verbal assurances to the Federal Reserve and consumer groups that it would accept Federal Housing Administration applications with minimum FICO scores of 580, Capital One is not originating such loans.
February 16 -
A new report that found systemic flaws in San Francisco's foreclosure process could be fodder for securities investors to make claims against banks and mortgage servicers, its author says.
February 16 -
The Center for Responsible Lending was one of 15 organizations on Thursday to receive a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
February 16 -
Citigroup Inc. agreed Wednesday to pay $158.3 million to settle claims that its mortgage unit improperly originated Federal Housing Administration loans, a swift reminder that the massive national mortgage deal does not insulate banks from other mortgage-related claims.
February 15 -
Bank of America Corp. and its largest rivals are hogging most of the mortgage-mess headlines. But smaller banks are also struggling to resolve problems from their high levels of delinquent loans.
February 10
