Hannah Lang

At a House hearing covering a whole host of housing finance reform topics, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator said "if the circumstances" call for eliminating investors, "we will."

Regulators have long warned the credit bureaus about deceptive marketing that causes consumers to sign up unwittingly for paid monitoring services. But the practice has persisted, according to complaint data.

The four prudential agencies, which will enforce the new credit loss methodology developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, said they want to promote consistency.

Executives sent a letter to the federal banking regulators last month expressing concern that an alternative to the London interbank offered rate could limit credit availability.

The Federal Housing Administration chief has already been serving as the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Allowing the mortgage giants to retain profits resolves a short-term capital shortfall, but how much capital they would need after exiting conservatorship is still the bigger question.

The move to alter the government's preferred stock purchase agreements is the first major one under FHFA Director Mark Calabria's tenure to wind down the conservatorship of the government-sponsored enterprises.

Simone Grimes had alleged former FHFA Director Mel Watt made inappropriate advances toward her and she was paid less than the man who had previously held her position.

The three federal banking agencies moved to raise the threshold for residential transactions that require an appraisal from $250,000 to $400,000.

The shareholders' claims against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator mirror arguments in cases challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.