Mortgages

Regions Financial, Alabama's biggest bank, reached a preliminary agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve an investigation into mortgage abuses.

Independent mortgage banking and brokerage firms added a whopping 5,900 fulltime employees to their payrolls in June, according to a report issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Settlements related to court fights over private-label mortgage-backed securities are significantly boosting the bottom lines at a few Federal Home Loan banks.

Returning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to their status as privately owned public utilities is consistent with their mandate and makes the most policy sense.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed a housing reform bill that will open the door for welfare recipients to use federal rent vouchers to purchase manufactured homes and become homeowners.

Benefiting from higher loan guarantee income and lower derivative losses, Freddie Mac said Tuesday it had made $993 million in the second quarter, a dramatic reversal from its $354 million loss a quarter earlier.

The private equity firm GTCR is interested in fintech companies looking to disrupt the status quo, so long as they have proved themselves and are paired with managers who have a long track record of success.

The Federal Housing Administration is promoting a particular kind of financing for residential energy retrofits that another regulator staunchly opposes. Mortgage lenders and investors have qualms, too, about the impact on their standing in collateral claims.

Iberiabank in Lafayette, La., neutralized the energy issues common to Gulf region lenders these days with a one-two punch of stronger fee income and robust, more profitable lending.

President Obama called for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be eliminated, but Democratic policymakers attending the convention in Philadelphia appear resigned to the fact that Congress is unable to act on housing finance reform.