Mortgages

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest servicer of U.S. mortgages, is buying the right to handle $45 billion of home loans from Ocwen Financial Corp., according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Lending groups are demanding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau take down its mortgage rate calculator, arguing it is providing misleading information to consumers.

An expected rush of refinancings of Federal Housing Administration loans could force some mortgage servicers to take writedowns in the first and second quarters, but they have more incentive than ever to keep borrowers in the FHA program instead of letting rivals lure away their customers.

Ed DeMarco, the former chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warned that efforts under the Obama administration to expand access to credit could risk repeating mistakes that led up to the crisis.

It's not just about cutting lawns and patching holes. To convey a foreclosed property into the Department of Housing and Urban Development's ownership, servicers are on the hook for every last detail of a vacant house. Here are five key pieces of the preservation puzzle.

Negative attitudes in Washington toward the mortgage industry are starting to thaw, yet devising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's exit from conservatorship or charting the future of housing finance reform still will be tough.

Fannie Mae selected a chief internal auditor with an "inherent conflict of interest" and the mortgage giant's process for filling the position was faulty, according to a watchdog report to be released Wednesday.

Telecommuting isn't new for front-office loan officers, but in an increasingly competitive hiring environment, some mortgage lenders now let their underwriters work from home, too.

Lucrative sale of a subprime lending unit. Big credit card deal. Clear business plan. It's looking like a good year for Citi — provided it passes the CCAR stress test this week and fills a key executive post.

KeyCorp has been getting back into full-scale residential lending as part of a broader strategy to deepen client relationships. The market's shift toward purchase activity and defined mortgage rules also played a role.

Michael Stegman, a top housing policy adviser, urged regulators on Thursday to bring more private capital into the market, even in the absence of legislative momentum.

More than half of borrowers with home equity lines of credit that will reset this year have seriously underwater properties, and that risk is likely to grow further next year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency won't keep renewing initiatives like the Home Affordable Refinance Program in perpetuity, even if it is extended again before it expires in December, Director Mel Watt said Wednesday.

Some newcomers to mortgage servicing did not hedge because hedging would have increased costs. Had rates moved up, the strategy would have paid off handsomely. Instead, it worked against them.

KeyCorp has named Mark Danahy president of its mortgage operations. Danahy had been managing director of Citigroup's U.S. mortgage operation from July 2011 to May 2014 and, before that, was president and chief executive of PHH Mortgage.

Two years after Citigroup was punished for widespread foreclosure abuses, the bank is dealing with another misstep: Thousands of people who were entitled to settlement checks never got any money.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said a review of its "qualified mortgage" rule will allow enough time to consider changes if lawmakers fail to make progress on housing finance before a key deadline.

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $50.4 million settlement with the Justice Department for robo-signing documents sent to homeowners in bankruptcy and for related abuses.

An audit of Ginnie Mae financials identified four "material weaknesses" and one "significant deficiency," primarily related to the accounting of $6.6 billion in defaulted loans made by the failed lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

Embattled mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial faces up to $26 billion in damage claims by bondholders and a greater risk of being fired as a mortgage servicer on thousands of small, private-label trusts.