Mortgages

Senate negotiators are working on a bill that would place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into receivership and replace them with multiple mortgage guarantors, according to sources.

Craig Phillips, a top aide to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, said his department "broadly" agrees with the FHFA plan, which would return Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the private market and provide them an explicit government guarantee.

FHFA Director Mel Watt said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be reincorporated as private entities and the government must provide an explicit guarantee for catastrophic losses in the secondary mortgage market.

The Federal Reserve’s beige book survey indicates the economy is expanding as household loan demand declines.

Blue Lion Capital, which had a recent request for a board seat rejected, plans to nominate multiple people to run for the board at HomeStreet's next annual meeting.

The cooperative financial technology company will offer Ellie Mae’s Encompass all-in-one mortgage-management product.

Total loans rose 3% at the Minneapolis bank, but its net interest margin climbed 10 basis points. It also booked a one-time accounting gain of $910 million related to tax reform.

The New York bank has begun marketing Marcus loans as a way to pay for home improvements, while also raising the maximum loan size to $40,000.

Housing regulators should not adopt an alternative credit scoring model until the banking industry is on board.

The JPMorgan Chase CEO is rejecting arguments that banks are poised to loosen underwriting standards to win more mortgage business. He said what's needed to encourage banks to make more loans to borrowers with spotty credit files are changes to FHA rules and other policy fixes.

Cryptocurrencies continue to dominate much of the news, with a warning on bitcoin taking the top spot and a story about Ripple's partnership with MoneyGram doing well. Housing finance reform, Wells Fargo and the CFPB also featured.

The payments resolve a number of cases that date back to 2011 and were among the largest coordinated U.S. enforcement efforts in the years following the crisis.

The Iowa company was sidelined by a Fed order for 2,155 days. Finally free, Ambank is open to making an acquisition and offering its mortgage origination services to other institutions.

Readers react to the Federal Housing Finance Agency considering changing its credit scoring policy, slam the possibility of enforcing mandatory penalties for data breaches at credit reporting agencies, weigh the possible nomination of a credit union regulator to the CFPB, and more.

Adolfo Marzol, an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is optimistic that technological improvements and other changes can help draw Federal Housing Administration lenders back to the fold.

Housing finance reform proposals could make it challenging for community banks and credit unions to serve rural mortgage markets, according to a report issued Wednesday by Brookings and the Center for Responsible Lending.

The credit union encouraged members to save on interest by converting loans they took out elsewhere to Educators Credit Union loans.

Laurie Maggiano, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's program manager for servicing and secondary markets, died on Sunday.

The Senate Banking Committee is expected soon to release a bipartisan bill that would significantly reshape the housing finance market, but key issues remain unresolved.

The IRS has taken corrective actions to speed up its income verification system, avoiding a possibly crippling slowdown for the mortgage industry, but long-term issues remain.