Wall Street Journal, Apr. 13, 2016–Light, Joe
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could forgive mortgage principal for thousands of borrowers under a new plan to be rolled out by their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as soon as Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.
Wall Street Journal, Apr. 13, 2015–Ip, Greg
Before breaking up big banks, regulators should consider the costs to customers and the economy.
Wall Street Journal, Apr. 14, 2016–Rudegeair, Peter; Glazer, Emily
Wells Fargo & Co.’s first-quarter profit fell 5.9% as the nation’s third-largest bank by assets said the slump in oil prices continued to punish energy companies and started to hurt some consumers.
National Mortgage News, Apr. 14, 2016–Finkelstein, Brad
Total mortgage income at B of A was $433 million, down from $694 million a year ago as the strategy of putting loans on its balance sheet meaning the bank gets less gain-on-sale revenue.
HousingWire, Apr. 15, 2016–Lane, Ben
The National Credit Union Administration announced it reached a $69.8 million settlement with UBS, as the company becomes the latest to settle with the NCUA over losses related to several corporate credit unions’ purchases of faulty residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis.
Banking Exchange, Apr. 15, 2016–Garber, Kate; Iyer, Venkatesh
Home equity loans and lines of credit declined on the balance sheets of the nation’s largest banks during the fourth quarter of 2015, as pay-downs of equity lines and balances outpaced new originations. “Large banks had been leading providers of HELOCs pre-crisis, so it is not surprising that they are seeing these trends to an even greater extent,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association.
ABC News, Apr. 15, 2016
Freedom Mortgage agreed to pay the U.S. government $113 million to settle allegations that it failed to comply with federal rules.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Apr. 18, 2016–Belz, Adam
Financial reform has moved in the right direction, but taxpayers will still likely be on the hook for the future failure of one of the nation’s largest banks, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said Monday.
Morning Consult, Apr. 18, 2016–Rainey, Ryan
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby on Monday requested the Government Accountability Office and Congressional Budget Office look into practices at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the government-sponsored enterprises it oversees.
DSNews, Apr. 18, 2016–Honea, Brian
The controversial principal reduction program announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency last week is expected to moderately increase expenses for mortgage servicers who handle delinquent Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans, but overall the impact of the program on servicers is expected to be minimal, according to a report from Fitch Ratings on Monday.
