Mortgages

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has shifted Perry Hilzendeger to head up its mortgage servicing operations from his previous position of running its home loan default business.

Freddie Mac Chief Executive Donald Layton insisted Tuesday that the government-sponsored enterprise showed "very strong fundamentals" in the third quarter, despite reporting a $501 million loss due to an accounting mismatch with its use of derivatives.

Freddie Mac posted a third quarter loss of $501 million, its first quarterly loss in four years, but the government-sponsored enterprise will not request a draw from the U.S. Treasury.

Though the deadline for compliance is more than two years away, lenders are already warning that they do not have enough time to comply with a new rule that requires institutions to report additional data to regulators on home loans.

Bank of America has agreed to pay $335 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it misled shareholders about risky mortgages and its dependence on the electronic mortgage registry known as MERS.

The government's aggressive (and unsuccessful) prosecution of tiny Abacus Federal Savings Bank stands as one of the oddest episodes of post-crisis era.

Banks have added so much capital in the past several years that they're better protected from declines in real estate values than they were before the financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank is exiting agency residential mortgage-backed securities trading as part of a larger strategic plan announced Thursday that cuts thousands of positions in numerous business lines worldwide.

The administration apparently intends to leave office without addressing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's capital bases and therefore the tight credit conditions.

The report from independent auditors will likely show that FHA remains below its 2% statutory minimum capital ratio, but HUD officials and outside observers still expect it to show major improvement over last year.