Economy

Freddie Mac will begin issuing single-family mortgage-backed securities sometime next year via the new common securitization platform, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released details Thursday of a proposal that would require large banks to submit a "recovery plan" for how they would survive a crisis.

Sen. Bob Corker championed a provision he added to the budget bill that would temporarily prevent the Treasury Department from recapitalizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and discussed other banking priorities in a sitdown interview with American Banker.

Uber has long taught that the best way to get consumers to pay with a mobile device is to make the payment almost invisible. Now, with the help of Facebook and Braintree, Uber is applying that philosophy to the rest of its business — and if Facebook has its way, other companies will again follow Uber's example.

Now is not the time for the Federal Housing Administration — which has stayed strong amid turmoil — to reduce its market share.

The $933-million asset institution said in a press release Tuesday that the technology, provided by Louisville-based R.C. Giltner Services, will enable consumer and small-business customers to complete the loan application process in minutes.

Bank officials say they are ready for rising rates; disagree on how much the initial increase would help or hurt lending and the economy; and predict more rate increases next year.

The central bank's "total loss absorbing capacity" proposal must be reworked to ensure that costs of huge failures don't fall on society at large.

The agency released a plan Tuesday that would provide incentives for owners of manufactured housing communities to reform their practices if they want to tap financing by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's unexpected move to require the largest banks to develop a "recovery plan" has raised questions about why the agency is moving now and how its mandate differs from regulatory requirements for institutions to develop "living wills."

Fannie Mae is offering yet another carrot to lenders that have lobbied extensively for relief from loan repurchases.

The United Kingdom has already seen the emergence of mobile-first institutions that have won regulatory approval for a banking charter. It is only a matter of time before they invade the U.S. market.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency unveiled a new proposal Tuesday that would detail how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should serve three underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural markets.

The recent ineffectiveness of Federal Reserve monetary policy and macroprudential rules begs the question whether the Fed needs to revise recent bank regulations, its own mission or both.

It can often seem that some of the biggest names in payments were established a long time ago in a galaxy far away, and today are constantly defending their empires from scrappy startups launched by digital natives.

After Wall Street has spent years trying to convincing regulators how they could collapse without disrupting the financial system, the largest U.S. banks will soon have to take the additional step of showing how they can keep from failing in the first place.