Compliance & Regulation

As homeowners regain equity in their properties and interest rates continue to increase, equity-financed home improvements will likely become more attractive to borrowers than short sales, home purchasing or refinancing.

As the rest of the housing industry recovers, a little-known firm with a key role in mortgage finance remains stuck in limbo, wrestling with regulators, lawsuits and the departures of senior employees.

Ginnie Mae has halted the transfer of mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America to a nonbank servicer because of missing documents. The agency is asking the top servicers for an inventory of loans with missing documents.

Lenders and Realtors are hailing a new law that delays flood insurance premium increases, but unless the government takes actuarially prudent measures, rising sea levels could cost taxpayers dearly.

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote on its bill to overhaul the mortgage finance market on April 29, but questions are now being raised about whether that date will slip, as supporters struggle to secure additional votes.

Done right, the mini-correspondent channel is a legitimate way to create mortgage servicing rights, but the annals of the mortgage industry are filled with solid ideas that went terribly wrong.

Some nonmortgage technologists think lenders are behind the times when it comes to reaching consumers, and they can help.

The rock and hard place between which lenders have found themselves in regard to the use of hiring screens and disparate impact (in hiring) just got a bit softer.

People who lack a credit or work history in the United States may have trouble getting a mortgage under the new qualified-mortgage rule, bankers say. A number of immigrants are self-employed, which makes it even harder to qualify.

Mortgage-bond traders at JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland Group were placed on leave in recent weeks or months, according to people familiar with the matter.