Economy

A technical error made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has become a saving grace for lenders who had pushed, begged and pleaded for more time to comply with a new mortgage disclosure rule.

The chair of the Federal Reserve said that though it takes the Community Reinvestment Act "very seriously," it is looking at possible changes to the rules implementing the 1977 anti-redlining law to address concerns that it is too lax.

WASHINGTON — After months of declining industry and congressional pleas to delay an impending rule combining two mortgage disclosure regimes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a two-month delay due to an "administrative error."

Payday lending activity increased in California last year, but the size of loans and fees charged both declined, according to a new report from California's banking regulator.

Some argue that nonbank mortgage lenders' rising market share poses a risk to the financial system. But this belief arises from an inaccurate understanding of what is in fact a well-regulated sector.

The decline in foreclosures and short sales is contributing to the dearth of housing inventory, complicating the prospects for home buyers feeling the pinch of tight credit and lenders that need purchase mortgages to supplant refinancing once interest rates rise.

RealtyMogul.com in Los Angeles said it reached agreements for a total of $250 million in capital, which it will use to offer new products.

Nearly five years after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, regulators are beginning to question whether the cumulative effect of the rules authorized by the law are hurting market liquidity — and if that could pose a systemic risk.

Private mortgage insurers see deeper coverage of GSE loans as a way to expand business, while lenders hope it could lead to a reduction to guarantee fees.

Banks may be using credit default swaps to circumvent capital rules, potentially shuttling risk away from the regulated sector in ways that may pose systemic risk, according to a paper issued Thursday by the Office of Financial Research.

The Spanish-language TV channel Univision has launched a new online small-business lending platform.

The number of vacant and abandoned properties that are in foreclosure decreased in the second quarter, according to a RealtyTrac report.

A bipartisan group of Senate Banking Committee members is urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make risk-sharing a higher priority for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Marketplace lending company Lending Club is teaming up with a California-based nonprofit organization to make loans to small businesses that otherwise would have had their applications rejected.

The mortgage lender Nationstar Mortgage Holdings is pouring a lot of energy into a digital and mobile homebuying platform called Xome. The strategy could attract tech-savvy millennials but carries plenty of risks including whether consumers would be improperly steered to its products.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule Wednesday that allows it to monitor the biggest nonbank auto finance companies.

With the onset of the new integrated disclosures rule, mortgage lenders owe it to their companies to make sure that operations folks have the chance to get out to events and workshops that will keep them informed and updated on new industry requirements.

Fannie and Freddie should offer upfront risk-sharing options in order to give lenders an opportunity to lower their guarantee fees while encouraging more private capital and competition to flow into the secondary mortgage market.

The details of the final Des-Moines-Seattle Home Loan Bank deal made it clear why this merger worked when past attempts had not and gave clues as to whether other institutions could one day follow suit. Following are three items that jumped out.

Several weighty issues remain on the agenda for policymakers over the next few months, including everything from living wills to regulatory relief to a long-lost compensation rule.