Mortgages

There's nothing like a natural disaster to make people realize how important insurance is to the banking industry.

Bank repossessions of distressed homes hit a 30-month high in July, as financial institutions continue to work through the backlog of bubble-era loans.

The $3.9 billion-asset Luther Burbank Savings has opened retail loan origination offices in several Southern California cities to produce more jumbo mortgages. It is one of several lenders in the region that think jumbo loans are worth the risks to achieve growth.

New Supplemental Performance Metric should encourage lenders serve lower credit scores borrowers.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a regulatory mandate to shrink. But that's easier said than done, given the GSEs' outsized presence in the mortgage industry, as their latest quarterly results show.

WASHINGTON — Four more Federal Home Loan Banks have won regulatory approval to participate in a program that allows member institutions to sell jumbo mortgage loans through a conduit to Redwood Trust.

Banks that sold faulty mortgage-backed securities right before the crisis have suffered a string of legal defeats over the timing of government lawsuits, but some experts believe the industry may still have a shot in the Supreme Court.

In 1979, mortgage bankers worried that they could be undercut by "sleeping giants" like Merrill Lynch, Sears Roebuck and what was then called Master Charge.

Just 8% of U.S. mortgage origination volume in the second quarter went to borrowers with subprime credit scores, according to new research by the New York Fed. The findings suggest that mortgage standards have loosened only slightly, if at all.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to issue a proposal soon that would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase manufactured housing loans from lenders.

Homeownership is out of reach for too many Americans. The next president could change that with a few simple policies aimed at encouraging private capital to invest in residential mortgages.

FNBH Bancorp in Michigan has been unable to make an important move without its primary regulator's OK in the six years since its nonperforming assets hit double digits. It's an extreme example of the tension between past problems and future visions that freezes many banks.

Wells Fargo's head of mortgage lending, Mike Heid, will retire in October. The San Francisco company will promote Franklin Codel, head of mortgage production, to succeed Heid as head of Wells Fargo Home Lending.

Consumers' growing confidence about their ability to qualify for a mortgage is generating more foot traffic, sales orders and loan volume for some of the nation's largest homebuilders.

Ocwen Financial's internal review group is "independent," and the Atlanta servicer is in compliance with the national mortgage settlement, settlement monitor Joseph A. Smith said Tuesday.

Walter Investment Management in Tampa, Fla., said its second-quarter loss widened, as it recorded a goodwill impairment charge in its reverse mortgage division.

A federal judge has overturned a New York City law that would have required banks to make new disclosures regarding their investments in local communities.

The range of loan products offered by mortgage lenders and investors has been narrow since the housing crisis, but a few underserved niches are starting to make a comeback.

M&T Bank's disclosure that it is in settlement talks with the Justice Department for not complying with underwriting guidelines on FHA loans has renewed fears that more lenders will be targeted.