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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When the qualified mortgage rule took effect in January, many predicted the rule would stifle lending to low-income and minority borrowers. But a credit crunch never materialized, thanks to exemptions given to federal mortgage agencies.
June 17 -
The Massachusetts attorney general's lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seeks to aid a nonprofit whose CEO has close political ties to Martha Coakley's gubernatorial campaign.
June 10 -
A reported $12 billion settlement with federal and state authorities could force Bank of America to take a charge eating up most of its second-quarter profits. After that, the bank may finally get to move on.
June 6 -
Executives at private mortgage insurers expect the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to reduce some fees in the next year, which would make privately-insured GSE loans more competitive with government loans.
June 5 -
An appeals court on Wednesday voided a controversial decision in 2011 by New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff, saying he erred in scuttling a $325 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup.
June 4 -
Lenders are doing a much better job closing the loan applications they are getting, and they are doing so in a shorter period of time. Tight credit has not increased the risk that a loan will fail to close.
June 2 -
An increasing number of severely delinquent mortgages that were securitized during the boom years are sustaining losses that are greater than the loan's original principal balance.
May 28 -
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are retaining more high-quality, conforming mortgages that they would normally sell to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, raising concerns that the banks are adversely selecting the weakest loans for the government-sponsored enterprises.
May 22 -
New York regulator Benjamin Lawksy plans to eliminate several layers of review for mortgage bankers to apply for a license or a new branch location, and to expand an investigation into the affiliated businesses of nonbank servicers.
May 20 -
Citi's move may bring much-needed liquidity to a segment of the mortgage market that most of the big banks, with the exception of Wells Fargo, abandoned in the aftermath of the crisis.
May 20 -
Regulators' recent moves to encourage mortgage lenders to relax standards have reignited a contentious debate.
May 19 -
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley reiterated calls Wednesday for the Federal Housing Finance Agency to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offer principal reductions to distressed borrowers and to participate in nonprofit home buyback programs.
May 14 -
Green Tree's bad report card comes as regulators and lawmakers are scrutinizing nonbank servicers that have aggressively purchased mortgage servicing rights from banks.
May 14 -
The government-sponsored enterprises just went a long way toward encouraging lenders to make more loans to borrowers with lower credit scores.
May 13 -
Lenders and loan officers are increasingly using social media to scout for customers, raising a host of compliance concerns, from preventing unauthorized use of brands to monitoring employee communications.
May 12 -
The government-sponsored enterprises remain profitable, but executives are raising fresh concerns about their ability to withstand a recession because of restrictions on raising capital.
May 8 -
Brokers of servicing rights say the overall market remains robust, despite suggestions by Ocwen's William Erbey last week that trades had ground to a halt. Trading of seriously delinquent portfolios has slowed on concerns about increased liability.
April 22 -
Regulator Benjamin Lawsky is concerned that Hubzu, a website run by Ocwen's Alitsource affiliate, charges inflated fees "through conflicted business relationships" at the expense of mortgage investors and strapped homeowners.
April 21 -
Mortgage bondholders have long complained to regulators that the national mortgage settlement gave large bank servicers credit for principal reductions and loan modifications they did not pay for themselves.
April 21 -
B of A caught observers off guard by announcing $6 billion in mortgage litigation expenses, but the move is an attempt to convince analysts and investors that there is an end in sight to its crisis-era legal woes. It just might work.
April 16
