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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If banks were looking for a palatable trade-off in state and federal regulators' plan to revamp mortgage servicing practices, they didn't find it.
By Kate BerryMarch 8 -
Servicers call the 27-page proposal unfair and impractical. It's hard to see them convincing regulators of the former, but the latter objection is harder to dismiss out of hand.
By Kate BerryMarch 8 -
The Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general found "systemic problems" in lenders' compliance with underwriting requirements for FHA loans.
By Kate BerryMarch 4 -
The Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general found "systemic problems" in lenders' compliance with underwriting requirements for FHA loans.
By Kate BerryMarch 4 -
Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday that it has created a pilot program in Arizona that will use money from the government's Hardest Hit Fund initiative to make interim mortgage payments and principal reductions for unemployed homeowners.
By Kate BerryMarch 2 -
Two force-placed insurance tales — one funny, one not, neither flattering to banks; Freddie Mac wants higher down payments; and more.
By Kate Berry and Jeff HorwitzMarch 2 -
As home lenders fret about a forthcoming regulatory proposal on risk retention, Freddie Mac will soon require a little more skin in the game from their borrowers.
By Kate BerryMarch 2 -
Bank of America Corp.'s website suffered an outage starting Monday that has temporarily halted online banking to customers in California.
By Kate BerryMarch 1 -
A decision by lenders to roll out pilots letting underwater borrowers refinance into FHA loans coincides with Republican efforts to scrap the FHA program the pilots would rely on.
By Kate BerryFebruary 25 -
Though lenders have long resisted entreaties to lower principal for underwater borrowers, Wells Fargo & Co. and perhaps Ally Financial Inc., formerly GMAC Inc., are poised to roll out pilots that would let such borrowers refinance into Federal Housing Administration loans and would write down the value of the credits.
By Kate BerryFebruary 25 -
Fannie Mae said it will give servicers more financial incentives to help borrowers avoid foreclosure.
By Kate BerryFebruary 23 -
Quicken Loans court case serves as a stark example of how mortgage lending can turn into fraud; subsidies for homeownership gets support from an economist at the Cleveland Fed; and more.
By Kate Berry and Sara LeproFebruary 23 -
A California lender began selling jumbo loans this month to BlackRock, proof that private investors aren't waiting for the securitization market to fully recover before getting back ...
By Kate BerryFebruary 23 -
CoreLogic: home-sale estimates by National Association of Realtors far too high; FHFA puts down on paper how Fannie and Freddie should compensate mortgage servicers.
By Kate BerryFebruary 16 -
By accepting lower FICO scores in its retail channel, Wells appears to have struck a winning compromise with HUD that allows big lenders to maintain credit overlays.
By Kate BerryFebruary 16 -
JPMorgan Chase & Co. put a top executive in charge of managing its home lending business two days after acknowledging to Congress that some military personnel customers faced improper foreclosures.
By Kate BerryFebruary 11 -
With the flood of foreclosures has come a flood of litigation, and with that, higher costs and reputational risks for trustees.
By Kate BerryFebruary 11 -
With the flood of foreclosures has come a flood of litigation, and with that, higher costs and reputational risks for trustees.
By Kate BerryFebruary 11 -
JPMorgan Chase & Co. put a top executive in charge of managing its home lending business two days after acknowledging to Congress that some military personnel customers faced improper foreclosures.
By Kate BerryFebruary 11 -
Jonesing for the Obama administration’s official proposal to overhaul Fannie and Freddie? Here are some housing reform prescriptions to tide you over until tomorrow morning.
By Kate BerryFebruary 10






