Kate Berry has covered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for American Banker since 2016. She joined the publication in 2006 covering mortgage lending and the financial crisis. Berry also has covered big banks including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. She has won five awards from the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, and has worked at several news organizations including the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Associated Press. Berry began her career as a clerk at the New York Times.
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House lawmakers modified a ban on big-money investors from purchasing single-family homes, broadening the exemptions for build-to-rent properties and eliminating requirements in a Senate version of the bill that affected investors divest their holdings.
May 14 -
The Federal Housing Administration put an end to pandemic-era relief last year, triggering a 28% jump in foreclosures on FHA loans in the first quarter and an expected spike in defaults ahead.
May 13 -
The Treasury Department held a high-stakes huddle with state insurance officials to discuss risks associated with the rapid growth of private credit in the economy and whether those investments could pose systemic vulnerabilities.
May 7 -
Life insurers' borrowings from the Federal Home Loan banks has increased in recent years, raising concerns about opaque, private credit investments and how it intersects with the Federal Home Loan banks' housing mission.
May 7 -
A federal judge harshly criticized the settlement of a civil suit between the Department of Justice and a Texas land developer.
April 30 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized changes to Regulation B, which implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to eliminate any liability for indirect discrimination by lenders. The change represents a major shift in how the agency polices lending discrimination.
April 22 -
Banks are pushing back on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's draft of a five-year strategic plan, which includes a notable pullback from supervising nonbanks.
April 20 -
A federal judge refused to sign a settlement agreement between the Department of Justice and Houston developer Colony Ridge because it failed to provide any consumer relief. DOJ agreed to an out-of-court settlement instead.
April 14 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has dismissed scores of enforcement attorneys early in President Donald Trump's second term, is staffing up its litigation arm in anticipation of defending its rules in court.
April 13 -
Jay Plum, head of consumer lending at Fifth Third Bank, says artificial intelligence is fundamentally shifting relationships between banks and their third-party software vendors, allowing banks to do things on their own that they would previously rely on vendors to do for them, like identify risky loans and prepare for exams.
April 9 -
The Department of Justice is seeking court approval to immediately fire more than 600 employees, slashing the CFPB's workforce by 53%.
April 1 -
A recent executive order encouraging changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Ability-To-Repay and Qualified Mortgage rules are adding to a packed agenda at a time when the agency has lost a third of its staff.
March 26 -
Over the course of its first year in office, the second Trump administration has neutralized the enforcement of key civil rights laws by reorienting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules and eliminating "disparate impact" that allows banks to be penalized for the discriminatory effects of policies without proving discriminatory intent.
March 18 -
A federal judge ruled that acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Russell Vought unlawfully refused to request agency funding from the Federal Reserve Board, dealing a procedural blow to a legal argument that the Fed can only fund the CFPB when it turns a profit.
March 15 -
Civil rights groups object to a $68 million settlement between the Department of Justice and Colony Ridge Development in Texas, calling the deal a sham because it funnels $20 million into immigration enforcement and surveillance of victims.
March 10 -
Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struggled to find a resolution to an injunction issued last year that halted reductions-in-force by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
February 24 -
The CFPB is in an existential legal brawl against it's own acting director, Russell Vought, and President Donald Trump, whose confirmed goal is to kill the agency.
February 23 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's complaint portal has been flooded in recent years, but corporate debt collectors, industry attorneys and consumer advocates question whether the bureau's efforts to reduce the volume will help consumers as much as it helps the firms they're complaining about.
February 13 -
Houston developer Colony Ridge Development agreed to resolve allegations that it operated a bait-and-switch scheme targeting Hispanic immigrants that led to massive foreclosures.
February 10 -
The Government Accountability Office was tasked with investigating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's stop-work order, but CFPB officials refused to meet with or provide information to Congress' investigative arm.
February 9
