Industries

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned lenders Thursday to avoid marketing services agreements where payment for advertising is really just disguising kickbacks.

Old National said that by owning the branches instead of leasing them, it would have greater control of the properties, classify the branches as assets on its balance sheet and become more efficient.

U.S. homeowners continue to take advantage of rising house prices to dig themselves out of the hole created by the Great Recession.

WASHINGTON — The House voted 303 to 121 on Wednesday to pass a bill that would delay enforcement of new mortgage disclosures that went into effect on Oct. 3.

The clash between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and its inspector general over down payment assistance programs run by state or local housing finance agencies continues to heat up.

Despite their major push to overhaul the housing finance market last Congress, Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., offered little optimism Tuesday that structural reform is on its way anytime soon.

An initiative underway at Freddie Mac seeks to integrate new and existing technology to create a comprehensive suite of quality control tools designed to help lenders manage their mortgage repurchase risks.

If we can't identify adequate capital to bear mortgage credit losses when they are incurred, aren't we setting ourselves up for another series of bailouts in the next housing downturn?

Kabbage is one of many nonbank lenders looking to partner with traditional financial institutions. But the firm is facing a tough sell with bankers who worry about the risks associated with ceding control of the loan-underwriting process.

Banc of California in Irvine has agreed to buy a Santa Ana office building for $77 million for its headquarters.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is planning to issue a final rule in the next 12 months to require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to better serve underserved markets, including manufactured housing, the agency said Thursday.

A bipartisan group of housing experts is seeking to inject more discussion about the mortgage market into presidential campaigns.

The most recent outcry came from four housing groups that warned lawmakers last week that the proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency "would make harmful changes" to the FHLB membership rules.

It's hard to decide which is more surprising: that the largest U.S. bank has almost abandoned the business of making home loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, that lots of big banks could be right behind it, or that the FHA might not even need to care.

Officials signaled that Hudson City Savings Bank's nearly $33 million settlement over redlining charges is only the first in what is likely to be a string of other cases.

Federal officials on Thursday ordered Hudson City Savings Bank to pay more than $27 million to resolve redlining allegations, the largest order of its kind and one that is likely to put larger banks on notice that redlining cases will be aggressively pursued.

Although new HMDA data shows no negative effects from CFPB mortgage rules that went into effect last year, industry representatives argue it isn't showing the full picture.

WASHINGTON — The number of mortgage originations dropped 31% to 6 million in 2014 due largely to a decline in refinancing as interest rates increased, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

Bank of America shareholders voted Tuesday to allow Brian Moynihan to keep his dual titles of chairman and chief executive, with 63% of votes cast in favor of Moynihan.

Money360, a marketplace lender that focuses on commercial real estate, has hired mortgage industry veteran Gary Bechtel as its president.