Mortgages

U.S. Bancorp has plucked longtime lending executive Tom Wind from EverBank Financial to run its mortgage business.

Eileen Serra, 61, the chief executive of the Chase Card Services unit, will step down in January and become an adviser to the company on growth initiatives, according to a memo Wednesday from Gordon Smith, JPMorgan's CEO of consumer and community banking.

The House Financial Services Committee approved a data security bill Tuesday that would require all financial companies to have similar security protections and notification requirements as banks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Calvin Hagins warned mortgage lenders about the regulatory agency's four exam priorities for next year: loan-officer compensation, steps taken to ensure borrowers' ability to repay, compliance with "Know Before You Owe" consumer disclosures, and marketing services agreements.

Two independent mortgage banks agreed to settlements in the past week with the Justice Department for failing to meet Federal Housing Administration guidelines. The cases are a warning to nonbank lenders that they need to beef up self-reporting of deficiencies, and they remind large banks about the legal risks associated with FHA lending.

There are no easy fixes to Nationstar's myriad problems — including a plunging stock price and increased regulatory scrutiny — but Chief Executive Jay Bray says the turnaround starts with a commitment to improving customer service.

Issues with upgrading software and ensuring pricing accuracy to comply with the consumer bureau's "integrated disclosures" have been magnified in wholesale loan transactions.

Legislative proposals to reform the housing finance system have failed to garner enough support, but a surprisingly simply reform idea is in plain sight: deeper private mortgage insurance coverage.

Since consumers have been able to lock in historically low rates, the monthly payment on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been within reach for most borrowers. That could change with a rise in interest rates.

The availability of home loans for low credit score borrowers remains very tight by historical standards but there might be some loosening in 2016 if the Federal Reserve begins raising interest rates.

Sage Bank in Lowell, Mass., has agreed to pay about $1.2 million to settle Justice Department allegations of discrimination against minorities in mortgage lending.

Kal Raman has resigned as president and chief executive of Xome, the digital platform of the nonbank mortgage servicer Nationstar Mortgage Holdings.

Anticipation of rising interest rates has stirred more talk among mortgage lenders about the need to originate loans to borrowers with low credit scores. Mortgage lenders like Angel Oak Home Loans in Atlanta argue there is a distinction between the subprime products being pitched today and the infamous stated-income loans of yore.

With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's disclosure rule potentially slowing down the loan process, institutions need to focus on communication strategies to keep young borrowers at the closing table.

No two mortgage servicing rights portfolios look the same, and buyers have strong opinions about the kinds of deals they want to do. Here are some factors that can swing MSR transaction values, according to Matt Maurer, managing director at MountainView Capital Holdings.

A new Fannie Mae program allowing nonborrower income to count in qualifying homeowners for low-down payment loans received near-universal praise from industry representatives and federal officials at a recent housing symposium here.

Bryan Sullivan, the CFO at LoanDepot, talks about its growth prospects without fuel from an initial public offering, how getting consumers to opt for home equity lines of credit is tough, and why he considers the nonbank a disruptor.

Quicken Loans, the company that showed a mortgage business can operate successfully without face-to-face interaction with borrowers, is now giving customers the option to work without human loan officers.

The Federal Housing Administration's annual financial report demonstrates the outsize influence of reverse mortgages on the performance of its insurance fund, fueling a debate about whether those loans belong there.

Higher mortgage rates and other macroeconomic challenges may dampen lending under the Federal Housing Administration's single-family program, but they will produce a net benefit to the insurance fund. Here's why.