Economy

Fannie Mae employees will be working this weekend to update the agency's automated underwriting machine to process trended data for the first time.

Independent sales organizations and independent software vendors are equally threatened by disruption, making an alliance a logical — if uneasy — step for both groups.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Senators sent a letter Thursday to the Department of Labor requesting an investigation into possible labor violations at Wells Fargo related to unpaid overtime and other abuses that came to light after articles by the Los Angeles Times and a regulatory settlement announced two weeks ago.

The high volume of commercial mortgages maturing this year has left some property owners scrambling for funds to refinance. Not so for these eight landlords, who took advantage of the strong price appreciation of their iconic office buildings, luxury hotels, super regional shopping malls, and a portfolio of rental homes, to cash out — in some cases, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars of equity. Bank commercial real estate lenders, who know all too well the cyclical nature of this sector, will want to take a close look at these transactions, details courtesy of our colleagues at Asset Securitization Report.

Other investigations related to Wells Fargo may prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from sharing confidential information with House investigators, Director Richard Cordray said Thursday.

Republican lawmakers are pushing back against claims by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's allies that it rooted out fraud at Wells Fargo, arguing the L.A. City Attorney and the Los Angeles Times brought the situation to light.

Bankers generally expect loan demand to increase over the next year, but global shocks, domestic politics and regional economic variations may be prompting them to prepare for slightly slower growth than before.

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen today pushed back against the notion that banks might be "too big to manage", saying that despite concerns raised by the recent scandal at Wells Fargo, there is no inherent reason why large banks cannot meet existing standards of conduct.

John Stumpf may have hoped that Tuesday's hearing on Capitol Hill would mark a key turning point in Wells Fargo's blossoming scandal, but his harsh questioning by lawmakers — and his struggle to answer many of their questions — suggests that the embattled megabank's problems are just beginning.

Policymakers repeatedly said during a Senate Banking hearing Tuesday that Wells' mistakes couldn't be blamed — as the company maintains — just on rogue employees. Instead, they see a cultural problem at the San Francisco bank and wonder whether it extends beyond Wells Fargo.