Mortgages

A decline in expenses and a modest rise in lending income boosted first-quarter profit at Popular in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

F.N.B.'s acquisition of Metro Bancorp bulked up the Pittsburgh company's loan book, but M&A costs ate into its first-quarter profit.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to finalize its second round of mortgage servicing rules in July, a top agency official said. Laurie Maggiano, a program manager for servicing and secondary markets at the CFPB, also offered insights into the bureau's long-anticipated rulemaking on debt collection.

Capital continues to flow freely into financial technology ventures, many of which are repositioning themselves as aspiring partners for banks rather than would-be disruptors.

Recent steps by New York Community Bancorp to lower its borrowing costs paid off last quarter in higher net interest income and profits.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is seeking input from the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office on the future of policies dealing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

M&T is squeezing savings out of its newly purchased Hudson City Bancorp after fighting long and hard for regulatory approval. But it's also taking steps to keep Hudson City's customers from leaving, like offering higher rates on CDs in the New Jersey area.

The National Association of Realtors is teaming up with a coalition of environmental groups, taxpayer advocates and insurance companies to push Congress on flood insurance reforms.

M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., for the first time was able to report a full-quarter impact from its acquisition of Hudson City Bancorp, which took about three and a half years to complete because of regulatory challenges.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is continuing to reject calls to slash the annual premium for the Federal Housing Administration despite a renewed push by the National Association of Realtors. But some predict the FHA may eventually cave in.

Even while the FHFA finally embarked on a principal reduction plan, critics argued it was a dangerous idea that made Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac less safe while helping relatively few people.

FHFA Director Mel Watt acknowledged that the principal reduction program may seem "too small and too late."

Mutual of Omaha Bank and an affiliate of PlainsCapital Bank in Dallas have partnered to sell residential mortgages.

The world knows JPMorgan's quarterly profits fell and that it flunked the living wills test. But underneath all that were solid first-quarter results in its core lending businesses that bode well for other banks at the start of earnings season.

Quicken Loans plans to appeal a recent federal labor ruling that the Detroit lender and other companies owned by Dan Gilbert violated employees' rights.

Data breaches have become scarily commonplace. But even small financial institutions can take action to thwart hackers and minimize losses.

Commerce Union Bancshares in Brentwood, Tenn., plans to close mortgage offices in Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky and to transfer the employees to Bridgeview Bank Group in Bridgeview, Ill.

Congress should consider giving direct authority over nonbank mortgage servicers to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The report said there should be "parity" among financial regulators in the oversight of regulated entities and third parties they do business with.

Goldman Sachs will pay $5.1 billion to settle a U.S. probe into its handling of mortgage-backed securities involving allegations that loans weren't properly vetted before being sold to investors as high-quality bonds.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's experiments with selling credit risk to investors are a critical element of new plan to merge the two entities and move them out of conservatorship, but what form so-called credit risk transfers take could make a big difference.