Mortgages

The due-diligence firms that vet loans before securitization are erring on the side of caution when assessing the risk to investors of liability from the new consumer mortgage disclosure rules.

As drilling has slowed, energy firms have had to lay off workers, many of whom are falling behind on their bills – compounding the troubles of banks already dealing with higher commercial loan delinquencies in the same markets.

WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill by a voice vote Monday that will make it easier for mortgage originators to take a new job across state lines or move from a federally regulated bank to a nonbank lending shop.

Home sales growth has been tepid nationwide thanks largely to a cooling down of the housing market in the West, according to an analysis from Summit Valuations.

The secondary marketing agency wants to model how servicers' available cash might stand up to shocks because interruptions to that liquidity have been a common problem among those that failed.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, is significantly raising the ante in philanthropic and community development investments connected to its planned acquisition of FirstMerit.

InSellerate, a startup sales automation software company focused on the mortgage industry, has received financial backing from Sekits Capital.

Listings for new homes fell 1.1% in April, the first year-over-year drop since August 2014, according to the real estate brokerage Redfin.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton appears likely to embrace a recent plan to merge Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a single government corporation if she wins the White House.

The Justice Department filed suit Thursday against Guild Mortgage, arguing the firm violated the False Claims Act by improperly originating and underwriting Federal Housing Administration loans.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposal Wednesday to codify recent changes to its reverse mortgage program and to provide additional protections for seniors, including a cap on annual interest rate increases.

WASHINGTON -- M&T Bank has agreed to pay $64 million to settle U.S. government allegations that it originated defective Federal Housing Administration insured loans over a five-year period.

The June 25 launch, which will provide lenders with much more information about a borrower's credit history, will mark the first widespread use of trended data in the mortgage industry.

The government-sponsored enterprises' risk-sharing deals are being hailed as an innovative approach for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offload credit exposure to private markets. But their growing popularity is raising questions about how these transactions should be reported in financial statements.

The Consumer Mortgage Coalition is arguing that the bill has serious flaws by allowing private insurers to undercut pricing on federal flood insurance policies by offering high deductibles and exclusions to homeowners with mortgages guaranteed by the government-sponsored enterprises.

Loan growth at several Boston banks, including many former mutuals, is higher than the national average. Still, bankers are closely watching for any indication that a bubble is forming.

Going forward, Fannie Mae will be relying more on loan guarantee fee income from its single-family and multifamily businesses.

Fannie Mae will make a $919 million dividend payment to the U.S. Treasury Department after reporting a first-quarter profit driven by fees for guaranteeing loans against default and credit-related income.

New rules have made it more challenging to originate mortgages without drawing attention from regulators. Mercantile Bank in Michigan, however, believes that positive trends in its biggest markets are incentive enough to hire lenders and improve its systems.

Freddie Mac's second quarterly loss in less than a year makes it clear profitability is getting tougher as it shrinks. But it's a concern that must be weighed against more long-term efforts to reduce Freddie's overall credit risk exposure.