Mortgages

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi downplayed concerns Thursday that her demand that the Senate increase the conforming loan limit in a housing package is weakening its chances for enactment.

Much attention has been paid recently to creating a new regulatory structure to help address the problems in the subprime mortgage market. However, regulation of the entire mortgage origination process itself — particularly third-party relationships, where most of the industry's recent troubles originated — deserves just as much attention or more.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd met with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank late Tuesday to persuade him to support the Senate housing package without changes, sources said.

WASHINGTON — Critics continued to argue Thursday that a bill designed to stabilize home prices should be shelved because Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd received a deal on loans from Countrywide Financial Corp. five years ago.

WASHINGTON — In his first interview since legislation tightening supervision of government-sponsored enterprises advanced in the Senate, Daniel Mudd, Fannie Mae's chief executive, ticked off his list of concerns.

WASHINGTON — While housing legislation moving through Congress focuses on helping borrowers avoid foreclosure, it also would reform a corner of the mortgage market: broker licensing.

WASHINGTON — Mortgage lending reform, the banking issue that dominated Congress' attention last year, has dropped off the radar, leaving its fate unclear.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are trying to figure out why the temporary increase in the conforming loan limit has done little to improve the mortgage market.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee easily approved a bill 19 to 2 on Tuesday that is designed to stabilize housing prices and reform oversight of the government-sponsored enterprises, giving the legislation momentum as it heads to the Senate floor.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel's top Republican, have finalized their agreement on legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises and create a loan refinancing program designed to stem foreclosures, the lawmakers said Monday.

WASHINGTON — A conference hosted last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago served as a reminder that the philosophical disconnect between the industry and Congress has only widened in the aftermath of the market turmoil.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee voted 19 to 2 to approve a bill that would create a new regulator for the government-sponsored enterprises and expand the government’s role in combating the housing crisis.

WASHINGTON — For Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, the stakes at a vote Tuesday on his bill to stem the housing crisis could not be higher.

WASHINGTON — Negotiations late into the night on Wednesday and right through Thursday were enough to get a bill to revamp the regulation of the government-sponsored enterprises to the brink of passing the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support.

Criticism from industry groups that the Federal Reserve Board's proposed mortgage rules will make loans more expensive for consumers may be unintentionally ironic, since most subprime borrowers could not afford their mortgages when they got them, and they certainly cannot now.

WASHINGTON — A Senate Banking Committee vote scheduled for Thursday on a bill to help stem the housing crisis is shaping up to be a cliffhanger.

WASHINGTON — Intensifying his efforts to cut a deal on a housing package due for a panel vote Thursday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is targeting GOP members other than Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel's ranking member.

The House passed legislation, 266 to 154, on Thursday designed to curtail foreclosures, despite repeated objections from Republicans who claimed the proposal would unfairly bail out lenders and speculators and put taxpayers at risk.

WASHINGTON — At one point in March, it appeared the housing crisis would dominate the presidential race.

WASHINGTON — Top lenders and servicers are scheduled to hold a private meeting today with Treasury Department officials to recommend best practices for handling second liens and dealing with other obstacles as part of an effort to stem foreclosures.