Mortgages

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today announced the launch of a financial consumer education web app called AGScamHelp.

Initiatives meant to increase access to credit have rekindled the debate over whether housing counseling is the best and most cost-effective way for preparing consumers to become mortgage borrowers.

Wells Fargo targets black and Latino borrowers for more costly home loans than their white counterparts in the Chicago area, helping to prolong a local and national foreclosure crisis, the biggest county in Illinois said.

U.S. Bancorp recently began offering paperless account opening after seeing good results from electronically signed and documented lending. Yet a large segment of the industry still hesitates to use this technology, for legal, technical and cultural reasons.

A final judgment against Bank of America in a mortgage-bond lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission was signed by a federal judge, helping clear the way for the lender to complete a $16.7 billion global settlement of claims it misled investors about risk.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will let borrowers who have gone through foreclosure buy back their homes at market prices under a policy shift announced by the regulator for the two U.S.-owned companies.

FDIC third quarter report shows pop in loan buybacks and indemnifications.

The Federal Housing Administration could finally get something it desperately needs: upgrades to its outdated technology infrastructure. But industry groups object to the new fee being proposed to generate the necessary funding.

Giving roughly 5 million immigrants at least temporary relief from deportation could conceivably ease lenders' and borrowers' qualms about mortgages to undocumented workers who qualify with individual taxpayer identification numbers.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac updated their representation and warranties frameworks in a move designed to encourage mortgage lenders to ease credit restrictions by limiting repurchase requirements.

A lawsuit involving more than a dozen Wisconsin CUs has gained an additional element with a new suit alleging accounting malpractice.

The House is expected to pass a bill today to recapitalize the Federal Housing Administration by letting it raise annual premiums on borrowers.

Tighter underwriting guidelines unveiled Wednesday by the Federal Housing Administration will make it harder for lenders to qualify borrowers in a year when origination volumes are already expected to tank.

Housing and Urban Development officials repeatedly said Tuesday that the department's "review" of 15 lenders was not an investigation and that the companies may continue writing Federal Housing Administration loans.

The mortgage market could lose vital support from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac early next year if the Federal Reserve Board goes forward with plans to stop buying government-sponsored enterprise securities and debt.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Department officials acknowledged Tuesday that new data on loan modifications showed that many servicers are underperforming in trying to carry out the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention plan, but they appeared to have little leeway to force improvements.

WASHINGTON — A proposed national registry for loan originators and servicers would complicate already fledgling efforts to modify shaky mortgages.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced further changes to their foreclosure prevention plan Thursday, but instead of focusing on lowering existing payments, the administration pushed for ways to help borrowers exit their home.

The idea that necessity is the mother of innovation may generally be more popular with Wall Street scions than state regulators, but in Massachusetts last week the tables turned.