Mortgages

With agencies created by the Dodd-Frank Act embroiled in court battles and continued questions dealing with "too big to fail," can anyone honestly say the reform law is working?

Freddie Mac won't make a dividend payment to the Treasury Department after declining interest rates and widening spreads on investments triggered a $354 million first-quarter loss for the mortgage finance giant.

Bank of America said it reached a $190 million agreement to resolve a six-year-old legal claim from Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle over mortgage-backed securities sold before the financial crisis.

Amalgamated Bank in New York has started offering down payment insurance to homebuyers in a move it hopes will set it apart with highly mobile millennial borrowers.

Servicing rights are high-yielding assets, making them attractive investments for hedge funds, real estate investment trusts and banks.

The House passed a bill Thursday that would authorize state insurance commissioners to approve flood insurance policies for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other federally backed mortgages.

EverBank Financial’s first-quarter profits more than doubled from the same period last year as strong loan growth more than offset a sharp drop in income from servicing mortgages.

The potentially wide-ranging effects of an appeals court decision in Midland Funding v. Madden could deal a serious blow to preemption under the National Bank Act.

Technology startups diving into mortgage lending are doing a lot of things well … except servicing, warned a mortgage industry consultant who has advised them.

The courts would not be getting involved in defining the reach of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if the architects of the agency had instituted a commission to oversee it.

Freddie Mac has revised downward its economic forecast for the remainder of 2016 following a tepid first quarter, but still remains upbeat about the housing market.

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.