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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Already a flash point of controversy over its online bank's high deposit rates and negative advertising, GMAC Inc. is now ruffling feathers by cutting back on disclosures about its troubled mortgage arm.
November 4 -
Home lenders face some tough staffing choices, with business expected to drop 40% to 60% next year. Optimistic companies will consider holding on to employees in the hope that a pickup in home-purchase loans will offset a probable decline in refinancings.
November 3 -
Jerome J. Selitto, the newly installed chief executive at PHH Corp., has far-reaching plans to resuscitate the mortgage outsourcer, starting with its funding sources and cost structure.
October 28 -
A week after Federal Housing Administration Commissioner David Stevens vowed to remove "bad apples" from the agency's roster of lenders, he started with Ideal Mortgage Bankers Ltd., a Melville, N.Y., lender that does business as Lend America.
October 21 -
At the mortgage industry's biggest gathering of the year, servicers went out of their way to lower expectations for the government's loan modification program.
October 16 -
Banks ready to pick up slack as Fed retreats from MBS market; FHA commissioner David Stevens gives history lesson; new Freddie chief weeds out "green shoot" hopes.
October 14 -
Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase want to expand a government program designed to prevent foreclosures by adding a feature popular during the bubble years: interest-only periods.
October 14 -
Fannie Mae tried to jump-start the housing market by loosening mortgage guidelines for real estate investors. Eight months on, few banks or lenders have followed suit.
October 9 -
Earlier this year, when Fannie Mae tried to jump-start the housing market by loosening mortgage guidelines for real estate investors, banks and other lenders were widely expected to follow suit. Eight months later, almost none of them have.
October 9 -
The nearly 350 community activists from Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America were headed to Phoenix, the second stop on a four-city tour to help distressed borrowers avoid foreclosure. But Bruce Marks, NACA's CEO, would be staying behind for a few hours. He had just set up a meeting with executives at the bond powerhouse PIMCO — with, we think, our inadvertent assistance.
October 1 -
But chance turned what was supposed to have been a protest on the Newport Beach, Calif., doorstep of Pacific Investment Management Co. into an apparently amicable sitdown between two of its executives and housing advocates.
October 1 - WIB PH
Whether she's hosting a mid-year conference call with 5,000 employees or broadcasting live to 11,000 real estate agents, Heiden thrives on trying to engage thousands of employees in a common pursuit.
October 1 -
FHA changes may inadvertently make it harder for military veterans to refi; multifamily moves by Freddie and BB&T; and more.
September 30 -
The company said Friday that it plans to set up a special unit that will purchase residential loans from community banks, thrifts and credit unions.
September 25 -
The crisis and consolidation in banking have given Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. an unprecedented share of the mortgage market and new clout in their business relationships.
September 25 -
Starting Oct. 1, the Social Security Administration plans to raise the fee it charges to check the identity of a mortgage or credit applicant from 56 cents to $5 for each verification.
September 22 -
More than two years after the mortgage crisis began, doing business with government agencies has probably never been so critical for home lenders — or expensive.
September 18 -
Lenders earned an average of $1,088 per loan, a 635% increase from the fourth quarter's $148 per loan, the trade group found in its first quarterly report measuring the performance of independent mortgage bankers and subsidiaries of banks, thrifts and hedge funds.
September 17 -
As the tally of failed banks continues to grow, so does the list of institutions with similar names that have had to calm down confused customers and business partners.
September 16 -
Michael E. Kelly, the billionaire who built FBOP Corp. by snapping up ailing banks around the country in the 1980s and 1990s, now may have to give up some control of this far-flung empire — or lose all of it.
September 15
