Compliance & Regulation

Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante explains why she's encouraged lenders are lowering minimum credit scores, how manual underwriting can help overlooked borrowers and where the agency's volume is headed.

Carol Galante has a challenge: Spur lenders to take more care when originating Federal Housing Administration loans, without scaring them away or causing them to hike pricing to cover the additional risk.

The Federal Housing Administration will require lenders to submit full electronic appraisals for the mortgages it insures — a risk management practice Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted two years ago.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., unveiled a new plan Thursday to overhaul the housing finance market, entering what's becoming a crowded field of proposals to restructure the mortgage system.

Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay about $9.5 billion to settle government claims tied to faulty mortgages.

The largest landlords of single-family homes have formed an industry trade group at a time their impact on housing and finance faces scrutiny.

With more reliable loan data, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have greater confidence that borrowers would not default. In return, lenders would receive a juicy carrot: fewer buyback requests.

HSBC Holdings was accused of targeting minority borrowers in Chicago with high-cost mortgage loans as Cook County, Ill., followed other local governments in trying to hold subprime lenders liable for urban blight.

There is growing evidence that Washington is making the same mistake with respect to the housing and mortgage markets.

First mortgages increased 2.8% from a year earlier in February, the largest year-over-year uptick since September 2008.