Mortgages

Estimates of nonbank mortgage providers that will close or change hands should worry consumers and policymakers about access to credit.

CIT Group, the commercial lender run by John Thain, found a material weakness in the accounting of a mortgage business, causing the company to delay the filing of its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

First Federal Bank of Kansas City has agreed to a $2.8 million settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to resolve allegations of redlining in African-American neighborhoods.

New services seek to replace lender processes that often involve manually updated spreadsheets and other efforts pieced together to meet steepening regulatory requirements for vendor management.

Radian Guaranty is the latest private mortgage insurer to announce a change to its pricing structure for borrower-paid policies.

Redwood Trust is "repositioning" its mortgage business by focusing mainly on jumbo loans, according to its top executives.

Understanding how consumers pay their debts over time is expected to widen access to credit for consumers recovering from financial problems or who were hard to score before. Just how many it will benefit is an open debate.

WASHINGTON — Despite dire predictions by banks and others that new mortgage rules by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would cut off access to credit, the industry is performing well two years after the regulations went into effect, according to the agency's top official.

Mechanics Bank in Walnut Creek, Calif., has entered the residential mortgage market and hired a banker to lead the new loan group.

Meaningful rules encouraging Fannie and Freddie to do more with manufactured housing would allow more lenders into the market and make pricing more competitive.

It is time for institutions to act independently of the Federal Reserve and raise their loan interest rates to improve returns.

The affordable housing market has dried up in major cities across the country. In response, regulators and lenders are looking into new programs to get people back into single-family homes while also exploring ways to encourage multifamily developments.

The Treasury Department will invest an additional $2 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program into a federal fund that seeks to protect homeowners from foreclosure.

Bank of America will launch a 3% down payment home loan in partnership with Freddie Mac, but will not retain any risk if the loans default. That’s because B of A will immediately will sell the loans and servicing rights to Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a Durham, N.C., community development lender.

The government-sponsored enterprise was enthusiastic about launching the 97% loan-to-value product when it announced it in December 2014. But it has yet to become a sizable part of Fannie's business.

Shoppers who finance the purchase of cars, furniture and home improvements are protected under a decades-old federal regulation. Now consumer groups are urging the FTC to update its rule and consider offering the same protections to victims of home-mortgage or auto-leasing scams.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acknowledges that gearing up for the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act integrated disclosures has been tough, and it promises to consider that fact in exams.

The decision in Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage Corp. has the potential to radically increase the number of lawsuits brought by borrowers, particularly on loans that were pooled into securitized trusts.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt stopped short of calling for Treasury to recapitalize the government-sponsored enterprises, but said "something needs to be done" before they run out of capital.

Mortgage servicers are actively discussing with regulators how current rules could be streamlined, and future rules could be shaped, to minimize costs and hassles.