Jeff Horwitz

Nationstar Mortgage went from private equity flop to a top servicer of troubled loans, thanks to deft management and a Fannie Mae partnership once hidden even from parts of the government.

When Fannie Mae agreed to pay Bank of America $512 million to buy the right to administer 384,000 loans last year, members of Congress questioned the size of the payment to the beleaguered servicer.

The CFPB proposal promises an end to years of legal skirmishes over whether to categorize services as closing or financing costs and reflects a broader effort to improve how loan terms are presented.

Following a series of regulatory and legal challenges to force-placed insurance, the Securities and Exchange Commission asked Assurant, the leading specialty insurance carrier, to quantify the potential financial impact.

Morrison & Foerster can't say it hired the attorney who wrote the CFPB's rulebook. But it picked up the guy who started the job.

Because of the stabilization in house prices, neither government-sponsored enterprise has had to borrow significant money from the Treasury since the beginning of the year, leaving the total tab for their bailout at around $190 billion.

Nationstar reported a $36 million quarterly profit on Tuesday, though its immense growth and operational developments greatly overshadowed the dollars and cents of its earnings.

Freddie's strong operational performance is sustainable, and it is a reminder that the government-sponsored enterprises could serve as a cash cow for private investors.

Florida regulators are investigating the force-placed insurance industry, the state's insurance commissioner says.

Force-placed insurers operating in New York must lower the premiums they charge, the state's governor and superintendent of financial services announced.

Fannie Mae hopes to banish banks from any involvement in the purchase of force-placed insurance under a plan to lower the cost of the product.

A federal judge this week dismissed portions of the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against two former executives of IndyMac Bank, the now-defunct alt-A giant that was initially started by Countrywide Financial Corp.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has sued Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and other banks for a cumulative $92 million in damages on mortgage-backed securities, alleging that shoddy appraisals and other underwriting defects tainted their sale.

New York's Department of Financial Services hammered banks over their relationships with force-placed insurers in a Friday hearing, challenging JPMorgan Chase officials on lucrative reinsurance arrangements that the Department suggested are tantamount to kickbacks.

Accused of price gouging, kickbacks and borrower mistreatment, insurers QBE and Assurant sparred with the New York Financial Services Department in a Thursday hearing on force-placed insurance.

New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services decried "perverse incentives" in the force-placed insurance market on Thursday and recommended banning insurers from the standard practice of making payments to referring banks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has hired Chris Peterson from the University of Utah, adding a formidable critic of mortgage securitization practices and payday lending to the young agency's staff.

While bankers remain concerned about the activities of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they should take some comfort from a recent suggestion by the agency's director, Richard Cordray, that the regulation of nonbank institutions is a top priority.

Like many controversies, mortgage lenders' use of force-placed home insurance arose from what was once a well established and unquestioned practice. For many years, homeowners who failed to maintain property insurance could count on their banks buying it for them and passing on the cost.

California is taking aim at the prices banks and insurers charge for force-placed home insurance, the state announced on Wednesday.