Mortgage defaults

Executives are urging Congress and the White House to prioritize another round of help for businesses amid concerns that the continuing restrictions on reopening could lead to more loan defaults.

The agency has scheduled an extra assessment of institutions' strength to incorporate more recent economic data during the pandemic.

CUNA Mutual Group previously provided this service through a joint venture with PMI Mortgage Insurance but exited the business in 2014.

The enhanced jobless benefits in the coronavirus relief law enacted in March helped limit delinquencies and maintain consumer spending, analysts say. In their follow-up stimulus plan, Senate Republicans want to cut those benefits from $600 to $200 a week.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s plan to study the market explains very little about which activities or firms, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will be designated as systemically important. Here's some clearer guidance.

Lenders and small businesses are hoping this round goes more smoothly than the chaotic first one (and if it doesn't, Joe Biden warns, many mom-and-pop shops are done for); originators are adding staff, cutting marketing to handle massive uptick in refinance applications.

The two sides say a deal to replenish the small-business loan program may be reached for a Senate vote early this week; big restaurant chains said to edge out small firms for loans.

Partisan differences get in the way of new aid program for small businesses as SBA program runs out of money; loan servicers want a bailout as defaults are expected.

Mortgage lenders are preparing for the biggest wave of delinquencies in history. If the plan to buy time works, they may avert an even worse crisis: Mass foreclosures and mortgage market mayhem.

Banks' lowering of origination fees and loosening of underwriting standards often foreshadow a downturn.