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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Mortgage bondholders are threatening legal action over the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, which will give the five largest servicers credits for principal writedowns that the bondholders may take.
March 20 -
As cities and towns across the country struggle to pay bills and prevent troubled properties from giving rise to blighted neighborhoods, they're turning by the hundreds to a new tactic.
March 16 -
The $25 billion national mortgage settlement essentially allows the five largest servicers to police themselves - which has made many consumer advocates surprisingly happy.
March 16 -
U.S. Bancorp has moved all its home appraisals to an in-house unit overseen by a senior risk officer, breaking from the way most banks handle valuations of residential properties.
March 13 -
Protestors interrupted Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive Brian Moynihan during an investor presentation Thursday, shouting "Bust Up Bank of America!" and, curiously, "It's International Women's Day."
March 12 -
As cities and towns across the country struggle to pay bills and prevent troubled properties from giving rise to blighted neighborhoods, they're turning by the hundreds to a new tactic.
March 6 -
PennyMac's Stanford L. Kurland has taken his share of criticism for helping to start the financial crisis. Now he is singing the praises of the government's latest attempt to fix it.
March 5 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received about 2,300 complaints about mortgage servicers in December, when it began accepting complaints online, and the pace of borrower complaints has been steady ever since, according to a senior agency official.
February 24 -
Depositories unloading real-estate-owned properties face some tough choices, such as whether to auction off homes or sell them to investors, and whether to fix them up first. But whatever they decide, the real challenge is to avoid dragging down property values from their already-depressed 25% to 30% discounts.
February 24 -
The acting commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration this week blasted news reports that claim Bank of America Corp. was essentially bailing out the agency's mortgage insurance fund.
February 23 -
Capital One Financial Corp. agreed as part of its purchase of ING Direct USA to originate loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration to borrowers with low credit scores. But five months after giving verbal assurances to the Federal Reserve and consumer groups that it would accept FHA applications with minimum FICO scores of 580, Capital One still is not originating such loans.
February 17 -
A new report that found systemic flaws in California's foreclosure process could be fodder for securities investors to make claims against banks and mortgage servicers, its author says.
February 17 -
The Center for Responsible Lending was one of 15 organizations on Thursday to receive a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
February 16 -
When it comes to mortgage problems, Bank of America and its largest rivals are hogging most of the headlines. But smaller banks are also struggling with high levels of delinquent loans that are holding back a housing recovery.
February 13 -
Bank of America Corp. is limiting the number of refinance applications it accepts over the phone, telling borrowers who do not have an existing relationship with the bank that they may have to wait 60 to 90 days before their loan application can be processed, a B of A spokesman said Wednesday.
February 9 -
Barbara Desoer, the president of Bank of America's home loans division who was once considered a possible successor to former Chief Executive Ken Lewis, will retire at the end of February, B of A said Friday.
February 3 -
One of the takeaways from the entire mortgage meltdown and the current brouhaha over Freddie Mac's obscure hedging techniques is this: If you can't explain something, you shouldn't be doing it.
February 2 -
Citigroup Inc. will no longer purchase "medium or high-risk" loans that could result in buyback requests from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, in the bank's latest effort to improve the quality of mortgages it buys from correspondent lenders, according to an internal memo obtained by American Banker.
January 27 -
Citigroup Inc. will no longer purchase "medium or high-risk" loans that could result in buyback requests from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, in the bank's latest effort to improve the quality of mortgages it buys from correspondent lenders, according to an internal memo obtained by American Banker.
January 25 -
For all the talk about legal challenges to the recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at least one group of consumer lenders has no intention of stepping into the fray.
January 11
