Mortgages

The House approved a bill 427-0 that would revamp the Federal Housing Administration’s condominium loan program and expedite the approval process for Rural Housing Service guaranteed loans.

Morgan Stanley will pay $63 million to settle a series of government lawsuits claiming the bank misrepresented securities it sold to banks that later failed.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveiled an appeals process Tuesday that will allow an independent arbitrator to resolve disputes between lenders and the government-sponsored enterprises over loan repurchase demands.

Lenders argue that the GSEs would be better off buying more loans that are already insured, rather than transferring credit risk after holding them for a time. But Freddie Mac's Kevin Palmer says certainty of reimbursement is more important than the timing of risk transfers.

The near future may find more banks ceasing to originate residential mortgages in an effort to stop the slide in stock prices.

WASHINGTON — Key Democratic lawmakers are urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to tighten its program for selling nonperforming guaranteed loans to ensure servicers have exhausted all loss mitigation options before the loans are sold to private investors.

United Guaranty's spinoff from American International Group will result in changes to its capital structure that could shake up the competitive landscape in the private mortgage insurance market.

TFS Financial in Cleveland reported higher fourth-quarter profit, citing a $1 million negative loan-loss provision.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is reducing the mortgage insurance premiums it charges on Federal Housing Administration multifamily loans to encourage the renovation of affordable housing units and promote energy-efficient upgrades.

Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., posted stronger quarterly earnings because of an increase in mortgage banking fees and lower costs.

Amid concerns about the added complexity of the TILA-Respa integrated disclosures and growing demand for purchase loans, Flagstar Bancorp plans to reduce its over-reliance on third-party originations by expanding its retail mortgage business.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group took a surprise 3.6 billion-pound ($5.2 billion) hit to the value of its assets and set aside more money for past misconduct, limiting Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan's ability to return capital to shareholders.

JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $995 million to resolve claims by Ambac Financial Group that it was duped into insuring mortgage bonds backed by shoddy loans, paving the way for approval of a much larger settlement between the bank and institutional investors stemming from the global financial crisis.

In the absence of congressional action on housing finance reform, here is what the Federal Housing Finance Agency should do sooner rather than later.

Bank of New York Mellon has become a big believer in reverse mortgages, particularly home equity conversion mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

It is too early in the Providence, R.I., bank's turnaround plan to buy another bank, CEO Bruce Van Saun says. Instead, he would rather invest in acquiring commercial, mortgage and other loan officers who can feed revenue while he tries to make the bank more efficient.

B of A executives capped a challenging year by reporting strong consumer and global lending as well as other upbeat fundamentals, but like a lot of their banking peers spent most of their earnings presentation fighting off gloomy questions about the future.

In one corner are groups like the Community Home Lenders Association and the major credit union groups, which are hoping the administration will further cut premiums after a reduction a year ago. In the other are the MBA and the ICBA, which argue a cut now would be too soon.

Executives of Wells Fargo, especially CEO John Stumpf, have repeatedly insisted that the economy (and their bank) will be fine despite the collapse in oil prices. But now they are acknowledging efforts to think about what happens if they are wrong.

Bank chiefs should brace for a barrage of questions about economic uncertainty, if JPMorgan Chase's experience after releasing fourth-quarter results is any indication. Double-digit increases in loans and profits were not enough to stave off questions about the odds of recession, energy risks and adequacy of reserves.