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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Quite apart from financial losses, the massive foreclosures of the past few years pose another, long-term problem for the mortgage industry: fewer potential borrowers.
March 22 -
Wells Fargo & Co. on Wednesday became the second mortgage servicer to agree to a government plan to modify the second liens of borrowers who have received a modification of their first mortgage.
March 17 -
Mods and short sales could soon get costlier for California borrowers; science fiction inspired by the financial crisis; and more.
March 17 -
The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program, which starts next month, will offer second mortgage holders up to $3,000 to give short sales their blessing. But such lenders have been demanding higher payments to extinguish their liens.
March 16 -
With delinquencies rising on Federal Housing Administration-insured loans, banks are expected to repurchase billions of dollars of such loans this year from the Government National Mortgage Association.
March 12 -
A scathing report by a Congressional watchdog examining the bailout of GMAC Inc. found that the Treasury Department did not adequately protect taxpayer money.
March 11 -
Lenders get a crash course in working with military clients; mortgage bond investors "second" Barney Frank on junior liens; and more.
March 10 -
Defaults and loss rates on home equity loans remain paradoxically low compared with those of first mortgages. The counterintuitive trend suggests that the staggering losses many had expected the industry to suffer on second liens will not come to pass.
March 9 -
Home lenders are smarting these days as Fannie and Freddie make them repurchase bad loans. But a multibillion-dollar windfall, courtesy of the GSEs, will mitigate lenders' pain.
March 5 -
Home lenders are smarting these days as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac make them repurchase bad loans. But a multibillion-dollar windfall, courtesy of the government-sponsored enterprises, will mitigate lenders' pain.
March 5 -
Even as Fannie Mae tightens standards on most new mortgages, the government-sponsored enterprise is offering buyers of its repossessed homes financing with some of the most generous terms available today.
March 4 -
Man bulldozes home so bank can't take it; Fannie Mae errs on side of caution in calculating loan-to-value; and more.
March 3 -
Fannie Mae said Friday that many mortgage lenders are not complying with the most basic underwriting guidelines, such as confirming a borrower's identity or verifying a Social Security number.
February 26 -
Fannie Mae said Friday that many mortgage lenders are not complying with the most basic underwriting guidelines, such as confirming a borrower's identity or verifying a Social Security number.
February 26 -
SAN DIEGO — When delinquent borrowers do not respond to phone calls, letters or a door-knocking service, SunTrust Mortgage Inc. pulls out all the stops.
February 25 -
Saving Face, If Not the HouseAfter years of talking about "preserving homeownership," the mortgage servicing industry has a new buzzword: finding a "graceful exit" for seriously delinquent homeowners who do not qualify for loan modifications.
February 24 -
The new Respa rule is upending the first step of the home-purchase lending process by causing some lenders to rethink issuing preapproval letters or back away altogether.
February 23 -
Fewer new mortgages are going bad, the trade group noted. Skeptics say modified loans are doomed to redefault.
February 19 -
Total home loan delinquencies fell for the first time since 2006 and the 30-day rate, a leading indicator, slid again. But loan mod recidivism remains a concern.
February 19 -
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, once fierce rivals for mortgage lenders' business, have been forced into a kinship of sorts under federal conservatorship.
February 17
