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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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 -
Park City, Utah - Banks are not alone in criticizing the newly-empowered Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: even some consumer advocates are piling on, raising concerns that the agency will not go far enough in rolling back preemption.
January 10 -
The National Association of Realtors said that it overestimated home sales by nearly 15% in 2010, an indication that the housing market is in even worse shape than many experts previously thought.
December 30 -
The backlog of real estate owned homes held by banks and the government is "staggering," Fitch Inc. said.
December 30 -
Americans who are able to buy homes are putting down payments of more than 12% on average, a survey from mortgage lead generator LendingTree LLC found this month.
December 30 -
The mortgage market is expected to change dramatically in the coming year as some of the largest banks cede loan-origination market share to regional banks and nonbank mortgage lenders.
December 28 -
Fannie Mae's chief economist is warning that the United States has a 40% chance of slipping into a double-dip recession in 2012.
December 19 -
Nevada's attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto this week filed civil fraud charges against Lender Processing Services and two subsidiaries alleging the company engaged in a widespread fraud of forging foreclosure documents.
December 16 -
The backlog of real estate-owned homes held by banks and the government is "staggering," Fitch Inc. said this week.
December 15 -
Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, this week hammered the Obama Administration and Treasury Department at a panel discussion on the foreclosure crisis, saying fears of a political backlash led to the administration's tepid response to the housing crisis and refusal to back principal reductions.
December 15 -
Some mortgage industry members are applauding Congressional efforts to raise the guarantee fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders, saying the increases could help bring private investors back into the mortgage market.
December 14
