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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Most of the costs were either previously reserved for or will be incurred over several years. Among the five banks that settled (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Allied Financial and Citigroup), only Citi had to take a charge.
February 9 -
Bank of America Corp. is limiting the number of refinance applications it accepts over the phone, telling borrowers who do not have an existing relationship with the bank that they may have to wait 60 to 90 days before they can get their application processed.
February 8 -
Mortgage lender PHH has been scrambling to reassure investors of its funding and cash positions in the wake of an S&P downgrade and the departure of its former CEO, Jerome Selitto.
February 8 -
Barbara Desoer, the president of Bank of America's home loans division and once considered a candidate for CEO of the entire company, will retire at the end of February, B of A said Friday.
February 3 -
Ally Financial is "on par" with any top-tier financial company — as long as analysts ignore the massive mortgage problems that made the lender lose $250 million in the fourth quarter, CEO Michael Carpenter says.
February 2 -
The regulatory nod that allowed prepaid card company Green Dot to buy a bank marked a culmination of founder Steve Streit's rocky, years-long effort to move from the profitable fringes of banking into the mainstream.
February 1 -
Caught between Democrats and Republicans, Freddie Mac is guilty of the ultimate sin: owning something it can't easily explain.
January 31 -
The race for the exits is intensifying among big banks that purchase mortgages from correspondent lenders, creating liquidity issues for loan originators and radically reshaping mortgage servicing.
January 30 -
Citigroup Inc. will no longer purchase "medium or high-risk" loans that could result in buyback requests from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, in the bank's latest effort to improve the quality of mortgages it buys from correspondent lenders, according to an internal memo obtained by American Banker.
January 25 -
The big banks' mortgage woes keep piling up, in a backlog that is likely to drag down their profits — and a broader housing recovery — for the foreseeable future.
January 23 -
The Federal Housing Administration announced three steps Friday to protect its mortgage insurance fund from sustaining further losses.
January 20 -
MetLife Home Loans was profitable and gaining market share. But the risk of having to repurchase soured loans likely fazed prospective buyers.
January 13 -
Big banks may not be very happy about the newly-empowered Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but they're hoping to leave the unpleasant task of challenging the new agency to their nonbank competitors.
January 12 -
For all the talk about legal challenges to the recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the American Financial Services Association, which represents nonbank consumer lenders, has no intention of stepping into the fray.
January 10 -
The retired director of the Center for Consumer Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee says it is unknown if the cap on debit interchange fees will ultimately benefit consumers.
January 10 -
Peggy Twohig, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's associate director for nonbank supervision, canceled her appearance at a bank lawyers' conference "at the last minute," the conference organizers said Tuesday.
January 10 -
Lawyers involved in the big banks' robo-signing practices are finding themselves increasingly targeted by angry homeowners, who are filing complaints with state bar associations.
January 10 -
Banks are asking for more data from card networks as they attempt to comply with new regulations capping debit card interchange fees, a Capital One executive said.
January 9 -
Attorneys and consumer advocates gathered at the American Bar Association's winter meeting of consumer financial services attorneys raised various concerns about the CFPB and the impact it will have on federal preemption of state regulations of the bank and mortgage industries.
January 9 -
An Atlanta area couple, after waiting weeks for their home loan to close, posted a humorous — and scathing — YouTube video that targeted the lender, Bank of America Corp. The video prompted a rapid response from B of A, including reimbursement of some seller fees.
January 5
