Compliance & Regulation

Increased competition among non-qualified mortgage lenders leading to lower starting interest rates for borrowers should result in fewer of these loans prepaying within one year of origination, said Standard & Poor's.

The CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are stepping down because the job they were hired to do — return the GSEs to profitability — is done. But attracting top-flight candidates to lead the mortgage giants into a new phase may not be easy.

The central bank said the proposal is intended to eliminate duplication of rules for entities covered by the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008.

The CFPB's move is in line with the other banking regulators who have offices in Atlanta.

Advocates are seeking more federal funding for affordable housing. A federal investigation into the banks’ alleged manipulation of a popular tax-credit program can’t be helping their cause.

1st Alliance Lending plans to cut up to 35 employees in Connecticut and terminate efforts to expand its East Hartford headquarters in order to prepare for an expected increase in regulatory costs.

The changes mandated by the recent regulatory relief law would narrow the definition of "high-volatility commercial real estate" exposures that get a higher risk weight.

Though Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney tried unsuccessfully to strip the agency's fair lending office of its enforcement powers earlier this year, he insisted this week that the bureau "is still in the fair lending business."

In its proposed “disclosure sandbox,” the bureau has eased restrictions on firms seeking a safe harbor from liability.

A decade after the credit crisis, investors are returning to where it all began. The mortgage sector, blamed in large part for the near-collapse of the global financial system, is now seen by many as a high-quality market forged by fire.