Mortgages

Lenders and homebuyers should not expect further reductions in Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance premiums this year, according to Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro.

As banks look to cuts costs and improve efficiency, many are actively trying to reduce the number of times they "touch" a loan file. The goal: get the application right the first time so it doesn't have to be sent back to the underwriter for time-consuming and costly fixes.

Fears that lower Federal Housing Administration premiums will negatively affect private mortgage insurance firms are overblown. If anything, the plan should be a modest positive for the overall housing market.

The Supreme Court gave homeowners more ability to cancel their mortgages if lenders don't provide the required disclosures, in a setback for the banking industry.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching a toolkit on Tuesday that will help consumers shop for a mortgage by finding the best rates in their area based on data the agency gathers from lenders.

Freddie Mac in the next month plans to approve three more lenders, including one bank, to make multifamily loans between $1 million and $5 million for GSE purchase and securitization, according to an official. Banks were not initially courted.

The San Francisco bank will lend to more borrowers with weaker credit histories, an official at the bank said. Bank of the West, a BNP Paribas subsidiary, has proven to be more aggressive than U.S. peers in the past.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reached a preliminary settlement to pay $500 million to resolve a lawsuit over $17.6 billion of faulty mortgage-backed securities issued by Bear Stearns.

By targeting construction lending, 1st Financial Bank USA aims to expand beyond its hefty concentration in credit card loans while entering a business segment that has shrunk mightily since the financial crisis.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro moved swiftly on Thursday to defend pending cuts to the Federal Housing Administration's premiums, rebutting GOP arguments they are premature.

Lenda, a new mortgage company backed by Silicon Valley investors, wants to supplant the traditional loan officer with consumer self-service technology.

Home values have risen fastest in markets where institutional buyers bought up scores of foreclosed homes and then rented them out. But these investor have largely curtailed their buying, and may even be ready to start selling off more properties to profit from the run-up in home prices. That could be good news for first-time buyers.

Mortgage denials in 2013 were comparable to those recorded a decade ago, analyses of HMDA data show, challenging perceptions about how easy lending really was during the era of "pulse" loans and "fog-a-mirror finance."

An index of late-payment rates hit a record low in the third quarter, as consumer spent less to fill their gas tanks.

President Obama is expected to announce a half-percentage-point reduction in the Federal Housing Administration's annual premium during a housing policy speech Thursday in Phoenix.

Investors' demands that the country's biggest bank produce better earnings amid costlier regulations are prompting fresh cries to break up JPMorgan Chase.

SunTrust Banks will provision $145 million in its fourth-quarter results for legal expenses related to previously disclosed mortgage issues, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.

Ocwen Financial, operating under a settlement with New York's banking regulator that restricts its servicing portfolio acquisitions, is looking at its old private-label mortgage securities as a new profit center.

Federal regulators formally issued a final risk retention rule for mortgage securitizations, a long-awaited and hotly debated measure that is nevertheless expected to have little market impact when it takes effect a year from now.

The 3%-down payment mortgage has been made available to consumers with a speed rarely seen in this business, in large part because more lenders than ever are selling loans directly to Fannie and Freddie.