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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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 -
Lenders face a condominium conundrum in Florida; private mortgage insurers get a break from state regulators' capital ratio requirements.
February 17 -
Citigroup Inc. said Thursday that it will allow defaulted borrowers to remain in their homes for six months and provide at least $1,000 for them to relocate if a borrower turns over the property's deed to CitiMortgage.
February 11 -
A community group says minorities in California were twice as likely as whites to have a home loan application denied in 2008, raising concerns that large lenders have returned to the practice of redlining.
February 8 -
"You will see steady progress, month by month" in reducing risk from the home lending unit, says Michael Carpenter, the auto finance company's CEO.
February 4 -
The cost of originating a home mortgage is soaring and profits are dwindling to the extent lenders can't pass the increases on. To ensure compliance with a slew of new regulations that recently took effect or are scheduled to over the next year, lenders are hiring armies of legal and quality-control specialists.
February 2 -
One of the less-examined cracks in the foundations of the Federal Housing Administration is the lending done in recent years by home builders' financing arms.
January 31 -
Fannie Mae is trying to attract buyers for homes it has repossessed by offering 3.5% of the price to cover closing costs, Whirlpool appliances or a combination of the two.
January 28 -
Environmentalists say neighborhoods where you don't need a car cut foreclosure risk; Cuomo probes "online retailers," including GMAC; and more.
January 27 -
Loans are expected to take longer to close and many home purchases could be delayed or are falling through because lenders are being held to the good-faith estimate of closing costs they present to applicants.
January 26
