Affordable housing

Wells Fargo is in negotiations to settle a U.S. probe into procurement of low-income housing tax credits as its top lawyer tries to clean up issues before handing off the chief executive officer role.

At a time when costs continue to soar and regulators weigh reforms for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, more than half of the Democratic presidential candidates have talked about housing on the campaign trail.

Undeterred by setbacks in other cities, a broad coalition of community groups is seizing on popular mistrust of traditional banks to press the case for a city-owned bank.

Housing advocates and Democratic lawmakers want to create more protections for tenants of rent-controlled apartments, but they are facing stiff opposition from property owners and the banks that lend to them.

Two nonprofits threatened by the effort say the Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to avoid scrutiny last month when it announced the new policy outside the formal rulemaking process.

The two banks’ CEOs used a public hearing to argue their merger will be a boon for underserved markets. But other speakers warned that bank consolidation hurts communities.

The Trump administration is cracking down on national affordable housing programs because of concern over growing risk to the government's almost $1.3 trillion portfolio of federally insured mortgages.

Adolfo Marzol, who has served as an adviser to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, will now report to the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Wells Fargo and the denial stage of recovery; community bankers alarmed after big banks backtrack on faster-payments pricing; credit card, auto loan delinquencies hit seven-year high; and more from this week's most-read stories.

The two banks will each give $15 million to the Foundation for the Carolinas, which supports affordable housing development in Mecklenburg County.