Economy

Bank of America will launch a 3% down payment home loan in partnership with Freddie Mac, but will not retain any risk if the loans default. That’s because B of A will immediately will sell the loans and servicing rights to Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a Durham, N.C., community development lender.

CCB Bankshares in South Hill, Va., has raised $3.5 million in a private placement of debt and will use some of the money to exit the Small Business Lending Fund.

The government-sponsored enterprise was enthusiastic about launching the 97% loan-to-value product when it announced it in December 2014. But it has yet to become a sizable part of Fannie's business.

With the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. poised to announce the results, it's not clear who should be the most nervous: banks, regulators or the American people.

Shoppers who finance the purchase of cars, furniture and home improvements are protected under a decades-old federal regulation. Now consumer groups are urging the FTC to update its rule and consider offering the same protections to victims of home-mortgage or auto-leasing scams.

Inefficient, paper-bound processes, oligopolies that can charge high prices, the Rube Goldberg structure of correspondent banking, and excessive regulation all make it expensive for migrants to send money home. Technology is a big part of the answer.

Fannie Mae's net income fell 23% to $11 billion in 2015 from a year earlier despite benefiting from higher purchases of single-family and multifamily loans, the government-sponsored enterprise said Friday.

Survey results of voter attitudes from competitive swing districts indicate that the 2010 financial law is ripe for reform.

The decision in Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage Corp. has the potential to radically increase the number of lawsuits brought by borrowers, particularly on loans that were pooled into securitized trusts.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board released an interim rule Thursday implementing a congressionally mandated reduction in the Fed dividend for banks with over $10 billion in assets.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt stopped short of calling for Treasury to recapitalize the government-sponsored enterprises, but said "something needs to be done" before they run out of capital.

Mondo, a U.K. challenger bank, plans to make it easy for customers to use financial products and services from other companies. Rather than giving away the store, the bank says this approach will make it a marketplace.

Lenders are still holding on to scores of delinquent mortgages that date to the real estate crash, but a surge in home values across the country is motivating them to move the most troublesome loans off their books more quickly.

The Mortgage Bankers Association increased its 2016 industry originations forecast to $1.48 trillion from its January projection of $1.38 trillion to reflect market turmoil that has held interest rates down.

Freddie Mac on Thursday reported strong fourth quarter and year-end profits driven by a surge in demand for both home purchase and apartment loans.

Troubled loans no longer overwhelm the market, but there could be smaller outbreaks that servicers must be ready to deal with, a real estate services vendor says.

Banks are enthusiastic about innovation that involves both traditional institutions and nonbanks, but a more cohesive regulatory landscape is needed for cooperation between banks and fintech to grow even more.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is launching a 10-day social media campaign, #HARPNow, to alert struggling homeowners in 10 states that they can still refinance via the program before it expires at year-end.

About 10% of midsize businesses say they want to develop a relationship with nonbank providers, such as marketplace lenders or business development companies, and even more are said to be considering switching banks.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is moving forward with a plan to force big banks to keep better track of their insured deposits.